With apologies to Michael Ignatieff's uncle. If you get that, you know your academics way too well.
The Mississauga Twins were massacred – absolutely annihilated – by the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. The third edition of the Battle of the GTA was settled by a score of 22-2, and, well, at this point there is probably a broader story here than the game itself.
Needless to say, I won’t be providing many details of the various – and there were a lot of them – scoring plays. The highlights will go into my game story (I’m behind on three of them – they’ll likely all get done at once on Monday or so; I’ve been overwhelmingly busy with all day driver’s ed for the next three days and a bunch of academic research to do for tomorrow night) but I do want to go over two fairly telling statistics that span the Twins’ past four games. Two of the games were against Toronto; two were against Barrie.
Over the course of those games, the Twins have been outscored by a combined total of 63-18. In eight of their past eighteen innings (so, the Friday night blowout to Barrie and tonight’s blowout to the Leafs) they have given up four or more runs.
Needless to say, if you come within one four-run inning of giving up four runs every other inning (which is what nine over two games would be), you’re having some big problems and you won’t be winning much.
Some people – well, probably not anyone, but let’s just entertain the argument – might try to argue that those games came against the first and third place teams, and that might sort of deflect the 0-4 record, what with the whole expansion franchise thing and everything.
Fact is, a competitive – even a semi-competitive team – isn’t going to lose games like those by margins like that, to anyone. Period.
The outlook for the Twins shifts from a day to day one (‘how do we break this losing streak?’) to an existential one (‘what kind of tem are we, really?’). There are, as far as I can see, four issues/questions that go into sorting this thing out:
i) Were pre-season expectations set too high for an expansion club? I know it’s not an excuse anyone around the club will dare uttering on record, but sometimes reality is reality and an expansion club is an expansion club. Maybe middle of the pack – which was everyone’s overt pre-season goal – is just too much to ask of a first year team in a league where most teams have been together for a long time.
ii) Are the Twins just scuffling right now, and badly? I think this is definitely part of it – there’s just no way I’m sold on the idea that they’re this bad as a group. That said, what has gone on over the past month or so is a lot more than a bit of scuffling. There are deeper-rooted explanations, which, in reality, are likely a mish-mash of everything I’m bringing up, but a self-compounding (but nonetheless natural, happens-to-every-club kind of thing) nasty skid certainly plays a role in what we have been seeing here.
iii) Is the team too young? This extends from points i) and ii), and it’s certainly not a knock on management – young, homegrown talent was the right way to go, and the players they have right now are good enough that once they grow up a bit and play together for a while they will gel and be as good as any other veteran team in the league. But in the context of this specific season and what’s going wrong, their collective youth is something that a lot of people, on and off the record, have mentioned to me, and I think considering the opposing teams and how long some of them have been together – and the veteran make-up of many of them – it is a fair point to raise is assessing what’s currently going wrong.
iv) Is the right personnel in place, and is it being used correctly? This point is perhaps more interconnected with the other 3 than anything else. It’s no secret around the team that there is some disappointment with the players’ attendance and commitment. They haven’t had a full roster in ages, if ever, and tonight they were very, very short – one reporter told me he only saw 12 or 13 guys dressed, and while I didn’t get a chance to count and verify it myself, it wouldn’t surprise me. Even if it’s anything close to that – 15, 15, 17, even 18 19 or 20, it’s still far too low for a ballclub playing at this level. The consequences have been glaring and profound: players playing positions that they’re not used to (including pitchers playing positions and logging multiple at-bats in different games); call-ups being forced into action, like poor Kyle Crawford, who is younger and probably smaller than me and was lit up like the 4th of July ten times over for an inning tonight.
The second part of that question – is personnel being used correctly? – is a bit dicier. The coaching staff haven’t been playing with a full deck much at all this year, so it’s tough to delve into too much detail here. If I were the one filling out the line-up, things would look a bit different – especially in terms of which starters line up to face which teams, at least as far as it’s gone to this point – but on the whole, I’m not sure that personnel use and in-game strategy (which I suppose are one and the same) is enough to be a big – or even a tangible – reason behind the debacle we’ve witnessed so far.
Anyways, that’s my four pointed lament. They’re in Hamilton tomorrow, and if they drop that game, well, I was going to write that things will get pretty ugly, but they’re already quite ugly, and then I was going to write that they’ll get even uglier, but that’s a self-evident statement. You guys all probably know what I mean, though.
Tonight was the first time this season that the beat reporters didn't meet with coach Calcagni after the game. There wasn't much he could have told us, and I can't imagine he'd have been thrilled if we'd asked him to dissect this one. I tried to hang around and grab a player after, but they all dispersed pretty quickly. Henry Duke has always been very friendly to me and I imagine he would have had something of substance to say -- although a lot of my conversation with him probably would have been off the record, due to the nature of the things I want to know right about now -- but I'm sure he wouldn't really want to talk about the game, or even the team, too much after this one either, and I can't say I blame him.
I’m off the beat for a little bit – I’ll be up north for a week as of a few days from now, and then I’m going out west for a week. I think I’ll probably squeeze a game, or possibly two, in between those trips, and I know I’ll be back for the end of the regular season and the playoffs.
I’ll do my best to blog whatever happens while I’m away, and I’ll certainly post about it if there are any major shake-ups or changes!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Mauled by Cats
I’ll probably be a bit shorter tonight than usual for several reasons: one, I’ve got drivers’ ed this weekend so I need to be up far earlier than I’m used to tomorrow; two, the Twins were slaughtered again tonight which is never fun to write about, and lastly, three, there were far less positives to write about tonight than the Wednesday blow out.
Ironically, the margin of victory was the same: 18-10 tonight compared to 16-8 on Wednesday, but tonight’s game was a lot less close because the Twins needed to put up six in the bottom of the ninth to get to ten runs. Minus those, it was a 14-run Barrie lead, and it was altogether unpretty.
The Baycats put up four runs each in four innings – pretty unbelievable, actually. They just kept coming. Coach Calcagni betrayed quite a bit of frustration after the game, inviting the press to ‘put something intelligent in [his] mouth’ in our stories, and lamenting about the deficiencies of the starters, the offense, and well, everything else in between.
He also acknowledged that he hasn’t been playing with a full deck, due to the different absences, injuries and so on that have kept various Twins’ players away over the last little while. Tonight was no exception as they used a handle of junior call-ups. One of them, someone Hurley, worked a few innings of relief and wasn’t altogether bad, despite giving up a 4-spot.
Ryan Asis – in his first game back in a little while – smacked a two-run homer to cash Greg Densem early in the game. At the time, it halved Barrie’s lead to 4-2 and it looked like we might have a ballgame for a while (as it did on Wednesday night, too) but obviously that didn’t materialize.
Alarmingly, Densem went down to injury – he was nailed in the head sliding into third after he advanced on a throwing error to first when Asis hit into a fielder’s choice. He was down a while and I thought it might have been something really serious – like a dislocated body part – at the time, but coach C described it as a ‘mild concussion’ after the game. Of course, no one wants to underestimate concussions – just look at Aaron Hill last year – and it will be a while yet before we get a firm prognosis on Densem.
Mike McGillvray as a bit shaky tonight – he gave up four in the first to put the Twins in a huge hole, and he only lasted four innings. Coach C specifically mentioned starters failing to give the team innings in his post game media chat, so we know his outing didn’t get him far in the coaching staff’s eyes.
Darryl Pui had another good game in right field tonight – he hosed a guy at second who was trying to turn a hit off the wall into a double, and he wasn’t half-bad out of the lead off spot. Coach C mentioned putting him in centre field after the game, and Lord knows he would be an asset to the team no matter where he plays in the outfield.
Anyways, that’s all I have for tonight. The Maple Leafs are in town tomorrow and who knows, maybe the Battle of the GTA will import some fans from Toronto and it’ll be a lively, spirited night at the ballpark. Check back for some post-game bloggage tomorrow!
Ironically, the margin of victory was the same: 18-10 tonight compared to 16-8 on Wednesday, but tonight’s game was a lot less close because the Twins needed to put up six in the bottom of the ninth to get to ten runs. Minus those, it was a 14-run Barrie lead, and it was altogether unpretty.
The Baycats put up four runs each in four innings – pretty unbelievable, actually. They just kept coming. Coach Calcagni betrayed quite a bit of frustration after the game, inviting the press to ‘put something intelligent in [his] mouth’ in our stories, and lamenting about the deficiencies of the starters, the offense, and well, everything else in between.
He also acknowledged that he hasn’t been playing with a full deck, due to the different absences, injuries and so on that have kept various Twins’ players away over the last little while. Tonight was no exception as they used a handle of junior call-ups. One of them, someone Hurley, worked a few innings of relief and wasn’t altogether bad, despite giving up a 4-spot.
Ryan Asis – in his first game back in a little while – smacked a two-run homer to cash Greg Densem early in the game. At the time, it halved Barrie’s lead to 4-2 and it looked like we might have a ballgame for a while (as it did on Wednesday night, too) but obviously that didn’t materialize.
Alarmingly, Densem went down to injury – he was nailed in the head sliding into third after he advanced on a throwing error to first when Asis hit into a fielder’s choice. He was down a while and I thought it might have been something really serious – like a dislocated body part – at the time, but coach C described it as a ‘mild concussion’ after the game. Of course, no one wants to underestimate concussions – just look at Aaron Hill last year – and it will be a while yet before we get a firm prognosis on Densem.
Mike McGillvray as a bit shaky tonight – he gave up four in the first to put the Twins in a huge hole, and he only lasted four innings. Coach C specifically mentioned starters failing to give the team innings in his post game media chat, so we know his outing didn’t get him far in the coaching staff’s eyes.
Darryl Pui had another good game in right field tonight – he hosed a guy at second who was trying to turn a hit off the wall into a double, and he wasn’t half-bad out of the lead off spot. Coach C mentioned putting him in centre field after the game, and Lord knows he would be an asset to the team no matter where he plays in the outfield.
Anyways, that’s all I have for tonight. The Maple Leafs are in town tomorrow and who knows, maybe the Battle of the GTA will import some fans from Toronto and it’ll be a lively, spirited night at the ballpark. Check back for some post-game bloggage tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Attacked by Cats
The Twins were absolutely mauled by the Barrie Baycats in Meadowvale tonight – it felt like it would be a ballgame for a while, it really did, but the first place team opened things up against Mickey Campeanu in the middle innings, plastering him for six runs over three innings of work. The final wound up being 14-6; minus Campeanu’s horror show, it would have been a two run game and the Twins’ final at bats would have meant something, with them being within striking distance.
Shane Cole got the start, and his line wasn’t pretty either – he gave up six runs over four innings, but I really thought he pitched a lot better than those numbers suggest. He was hit hard – and I mean hard – a few times, but at the same time a lot of the hits the Baycats put up against him were just well placed. He had very good stuff, and I think that in a parallel universe his start tonight could have yielded far better results than the baseball gods chose to give it.
A few other Twins really, really impressed me. Jon Amendola was spectacular, smacking a solo home run early in the game, crushing an RBI double later on, and also drawing a walk before coming around to score. He struck out – looking pretty bad in doing so, I might add – later in the game with the bases loaded, but he was facing a lefty (he’s a lefty himself) and his earlier offense more than afforded him an excellent night at the dish despite the K.
Darryl Pui was spectacular – and I mean off-the-friggin-charts-brilliant – in right field tonight. Ironically, he didn’t even wind up with an outfield assist or anything flashy like that, but nonetheless three plays come to mind: in the third, Barrie DH Todd Betts ripped a single to right with runners on first and second, and Pui came up throwing, somehow preventing the lead runner from scoring – from where I was, it looked like a sure runner-scores-from-second kind of single, but Darryl’s arm held him at third. In the seventh, Jeff Cowan smacked a double into the right field corner, and even though it was a clear double off the bat, Pui tracked it down and came up gunning for second, somehow getting the throw there within a split second of the runner. Cowan was definitely safe, but the play had absolutely no right even being close to close, and it’s entirely thanks to Pui’s effort that the Twins almost stole an out. Later in the seventh, with Ryan Spataro on second, Dave Latour poked another base hit to Pui in right, and again, even though Spataro wound up scoring, Pui’s gun came within inches of nailing him at the plate. It was a fairly slowly hit ball that Pui had to charge, and it was another play that shouldn’t have been close by the wildest stretch of the imagination, but Pui made it as close as close gets with an awesome throw.
That’s baseball for you: zero outfield assists for Pui, but three absolutely out of this world plays that made all the real baseball people watching the game’s jaws drop. Awesome.
I suppose it’s tough to argue that Twins won any sort of victory – moral or otherwise – in a game they lost 14-6, but as I wrote earlier, minus Campeanu’s six run disiaster when the game was still within reach, the Twins would have been there, playing with the league leaders, the whole way.
Bench coach Ian Held provided some enlightening insight during the post-game media scrum: due to the absence of a couple outfielders and a couple position players, a couple of pitchers (that’s a lot of couples) had to play positions – and thus hit. Luis Castillo subbed in in left field, and Benson Merritt was also playing the field – at first base, I think. Anyways, as Held pointed out, correctly, both of those guys struck out with the bases loaded a couple of times. Neither of them have hit at a competitive level in years and years and years, being pitchers and all, and if the Twins had had a full roster there would have been actual hitters hitting in those slots, and who knows how a two run single or a bases clearing double at the right time would have changed the complexion of the game.
So, we have two different causes for optimism the Twins can bank on after being – according to the scoreboard, at least – taken to the woodshed by the league leaders: a relief pitcher imploded in a manner that was far outside the norm of what one might expect from any bullpen, and several of the Twins’ biggest at-bats, with the bases loaded, were taken by pitchers who simply were not qualified as hitters. It’s true – the game is played on the diamond and not on paper, but on paper those are both compelling reasons to think that on a happier day, the Twins just might be able to hang with the Baycats.
That happier day could potentially come on Friday, when Barrie is back in town for a regularly scheduled game (tonight’s was a make-up of an earlier rain out). If the Twins can avoid giving up one of those big innings that always seem to kill them, we could have a very exciting game and a far better gauge of where they stand relative to the rest of the league.
I absolutely must say a couple of things about the Baycats before I wrap this up, though. I was a little more than surprised to see that they had a player-manager – actually a player-starter. Their starting pitcher, Angus Roy, is also their manager. Strange, beyond strange even. Someone told me that he was recently released as a player – presumably on his own advice – and only re-signed with the team as a player, in addition to keeping his duties as manager, before the game tonight because the ‘cats were in dire straits as far as personnel goes.
As shocked as I was to see a player-manager, it was nothing compared to when the Baycats put in their mop-up guy in the ninth – and he didn’t have a right hand. I know, I know, it’s bad to stigmatize and point these things out, but it was pleasant shock: the man, who is named Jake Hines, was absolutely spectacular, flawlessly and, it seemed, effortlessly flipping the ball from his stub to his throwing hand and his glove from his stub to his fielding hand (which was the same as his throwing hand, obviously). My God, he was good. He fielded a comebacker to the mound and threw the runner out at first like it was absolutely nothing; the throw, stub-to-hand transition and all, easily beat the runner by thirty feet. Wow.
Anyways, my pieces from the weekend’s games are up on MississaugaTwins.ca, and, as always, you can look for my piece about tonight’s game in a day or two! I need to finish some academic research in the next couple of days, but I’ll try to squeeze in some time tomorrow to hammer out the story on tonight’s game.
Check back for more blog coverage after the Friday Barrie game; the Twins also host the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, and I’ll be covering – and blogging – that game as well.
Shane Cole got the start, and his line wasn’t pretty either – he gave up six runs over four innings, but I really thought he pitched a lot better than those numbers suggest. He was hit hard – and I mean hard – a few times, but at the same time a lot of the hits the Baycats put up against him were just well placed. He had very good stuff, and I think that in a parallel universe his start tonight could have yielded far better results than the baseball gods chose to give it.
A few other Twins really, really impressed me. Jon Amendola was spectacular, smacking a solo home run early in the game, crushing an RBI double later on, and also drawing a walk before coming around to score. He struck out – looking pretty bad in doing so, I might add – later in the game with the bases loaded, but he was facing a lefty (he’s a lefty himself) and his earlier offense more than afforded him an excellent night at the dish despite the K.
Darryl Pui was spectacular – and I mean off-the-friggin-charts-brilliant – in right field tonight. Ironically, he didn’t even wind up with an outfield assist or anything flashy like that, but nonetheless three plays come to mind: in the third, Barrie DH Todd Betts ripped a single to right with runners on first and second, and Pui came up throwing, somehow preventing the lead runner from scoring – from where I was, it looked like a sure runner-scores-from-second kind of single, but Darryl’s arm held him at third. In the seventh, Jeff Cowan smacked a double into the right field corner, and even though it was a clear double off the bat, Pui tracked it down and came up gunning for second, somehow getting the throw there within a split second of the runner. Cowan was definitely safe, but the play had absolutely no right even being close to close, and it’s entirely thanks to Pui’s effort that the Twins almost stole an out. Later in the seventh, with Ryan Spataro on second, Dave Latour poked another base hit to Pui in right, and again, even though Spataro wound up scoring, Pui’s gun came within inches of nailing him at the plate. It was a fairly slowly hit ball that Pui had to charge, and it was another play that shouldn’t have been close by the wildest stretch of the imagination, but Pui made it as close as close gets with an awesome throw.
That’s baseball for you: zero outfield assists for Pui, but three absolutely out of this world plays that made all the real baseball people watching the game’s jaws drop. Awesome.
I suppose it’s tough to argue that Twins won any sort of victory – moral or otherwise – in a game they lost 14-6, but as I wrote earlier, minus Campeanu’s six run disiaster when the game was still within reach, the Twins would have been there, playing with the league leaders, the whole way.
Bench coach Ian Held provided some enlightening insight during the post-game media scrum: due to the absence of a couple outfielders and a couple position players, a couple of pitchers (that’s a lot of couples) had to play positions – and thus hit. Luis Castillo subbed in in left field, and Benson Merritt was also playing the field – at first base, I think. Anyways, as Held pointed out, correctly, both of those guys struck out with the bases loaded a couple of times. Neither of them have hit at a competitive level in years and years and years, being pitchers and all, and if the Twins had had a full roster there would have been actual hitters hitting in those slots, and who knows how a two run single or a bases clearing double at the right time would have changed the complexion of the game.
So, we have two different causes for optimism the Twins can bank on after being – according to the scoreboard, at least – taken to the woodshed by the league leaders: a relief pitcher imploded in a manner that was far outside the norm of what one might expect from any bullpen, and several of the Twins’ biggest at-bats, with the bases loaded, were taken by pitchers who simply were not qualified as hitters. It’s true – the game is played on the diamond and not on paper, but on paper those are both compelling reasons to think that on a happier day, the Twins just might be able to hang with the Baycats.
That happier day could potentially come on Friday, when Barrie is back in town for a regularly scheduled game (tonight’s was a make-up of an earlier rain out). If the Twins can avoid giving up one of those big innings that always seem to kill them, we could have a very exciting game and a far better gauge of where they stand relative to the rest of the league.
I absolutely must say a couple of things about the Baycats before I wrap this up, though. I was a little more than surprised to see that they had a player-manager – actually a player-starter. Their starting pitcher, Angus Roy, is also their manager. Strange, beyond strange even. Someone told me that he was recently released as a player – presumably on his own advice – and only re-signed with the team as a player, in addition to keeping his duties as manager, before the game tonight because the ‘cats were in dire straits as far as personnel goes.
As shocked as I was to see a player-manager, it was nothing compared to when the Baycats put in their mop-up guy in the ninth – and he didn’t have a right hand. I know, I know, it’s bad to stigmatize and point these things out, but it was pleasant shock: the man, who is named Jake Hines, was absolutely spectacular, flawlessly and, it seemed, effortlessly flipping the ball from his stub to his throwing hand and his glove from his stub to his fielding hand (which was the same as his throwing hand, obviously). My God, he was good. He fielded a comebacker to the mound and threw the runner out at first like it was absolutely nothing; the throw, stub-to-hand transition and all, easily beat the runner by thirty feet. Wow.
Anyways, my pieces from the weekend’s games are up on MississaugaTwins.ca, and, as always, you can look for my piece about tonight’s game in a day or two! I need to finish some academic research in the next couple of days, but I’ll try to squeeze in some time tomorrow to hammer out the story on tonight’s game.
Check back for more blog coverage after the Friday Barrie game; the Twins also host the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, and I’ll be covering – and blogging – that game as well.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Plastered
The Twins were nothing short of horrible in dropping an ugly 9-0 decision on what was otherwise a gorgeous day at Christie Pits – I imagine the day at the ballpark was close to ideal for most Leafs’ fans, but I had a tough time stringing out the last few innings. But I did, and as a result you’ll all get to read coach Calcagni’s verbatim thoughts on the slaughter early this week.
It was really one of those games where nothing went right. Brian Speck, who was supposed to start Saturday in Meadowvale but was rained away, got the ball, and he didn’t help himself very much – a handful of wild pitches led to a bunch of runs scored, on actual steals of home and due to the ease with which the Leafs’ baserunners advanced on a few of them.
That said, his defence wasn’t there for him – three errors in the second, and six on the day, made it very tough for him, and no doubt if the defence had been there his line wouldn’t be as ugly as it wound up being. The Twins were behind by a 6-0 count after two, and it was tough to believe that they had much of a chance against Leafs’ ace Matt Taylor.
I’m not sure what Speck’s future holds – he started the season as a starter, was sent to the ‘pen to work a few things out, earned another start and blew it today. Coming to think of it, coach C did indicate Speck would get a start next weekend, and it would be a bit silly to demote someone to the ‘pen on the basis of today’s game, when absolutely nothing went right, so I think he gets at least another shot as a starter.
The Twins’ offense wasn’t there either. They had their chances early against Taylor – they got their first two men on in the top of the first and couldn’t do anything, and they hit a few balls very hard in the top of the second when they were only down by 3 and could have made a game out of it, but nothing fell for them. It was all downhill after that as they put together very few solid at-bats – there were, it seemed, a lot of disinterested-looking fly balls that came off their bats, and they swung at a ton of pitches they shouldn’t have and let a few go right down the middle.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Not pretty at all, all things considered. It was a tough game to drop after firing on all cylinders against Kitchener the right before.
Baseball, of course, is a very redeeming sport – and the Twins have an unscheduled shot at redemption on Wednesday night when they play a make-up game against Barrie. From what I have heard about the mighty, mighty Baycats, the Twins don’t even need to win the game to redeem themselves – although none of them will tell you that, obviously. If they keep it close and prove they can at least play with Barrie – you know, furthering the whole ‘play with any team in the league’ thesis – it’ll be a huge moral victory and they’ll be fine for the back half of the season.
Even though they’re 0-2 against the Leafs this season, I think they would be very competitive in a best of seven series, should the Battle of the GTA (as dubbed by Roger Lajoie) resume in the playoffs (it resumes next Saturday at Meadowvale first, though). I’m told that the Leafs have very, very little pitching depth after Taylor, and the Twins have run into him in both games. He pitches Leafs’ Sunday home games, and with the Twins not playing anymore Sunday games at Christie Pits we’ll get a chance to see how they fare against Leafs’ starters not named Matt Taylor, which is what they would get a shot at about five times in a playoff series.
I’ll probably add some further thoughts on how the Twins match up against the top of the league in a hypothetical-but-probably-likely first round series after the Barrie game. Look for my pieces on MississaugaTwins.ca in the next couple of days and check out my blogging after the Barrie game!
It was really one of those games where nothing went right. Brian Speck, who was supposed to start Saturday in Meadowvale but was rained away, got the ball, and he didn’t help himself very much – a handful of wild pitches led to a bunch of runs scored, on actual steals of home and due to the ease with which the Leafs’ baserunners advanced on a few of them.
That said, his defence wasn’t there for him – three errors in the second, and six on the day, made it very tough for him, and no doubt if the defence had been there his line wouldn’t be as ugly as it wound up being. The Twins were behind by a 6-0 count after two, and it was tough to believe that they had much of a chance against Leafs’ ace Matt Taylor.
I’m not sure what Speck’s future holds – he started the season as a starter, was sent to the ‘pen to work a few things out, earned another start and blew it today. Coming to think of it, coach C did indicate Speck would get a start next weekend, and it would be a bit silly to demote someone to the ‘pen on the basis of today’s game, when absolutely nothing went right, so I think he gets at least another shot as a starter.
The Twins’ offense wasn’t there either. They had their chances early against Taylor – they got their first two men on in the top of the first and couldn’t do anything, and they hit a few balls very hard in the top of the second when they were only down by 3 and could have made a game out of it, but nothing fell for them. It was all downhill after that as they put together very few solid at-bats – there were, it seemed, a lot of disinterested-looking fly balls that came off their bats, and they swung at a ton of pitches they shouldn’t have and let a few go right down the middle.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Not pretty at all, all things considered. It was a tough game to drop after firing on all cylinders against Kitchener the right before.
Baseball, of course, is a very redeeming sport – and the Twins have an unscheduled shot at redemption on Wednesday night when they play a make-up game against Barrie. From what I have heard about the mighty, mighty Baycats, the Twins don’t even need to win the game to redeem themselves – although none of them will tell you that, obviously. If they keep it close and prove they can at least play with Barrie – you know, furthering the whole ‘play with any team in the league’ thesis – it’ll be a huge moral victory and they’ll be fine for the back half of the season.
Even though they’re 0-2 against the Leafs this season, I think they would be very competitive in a best of seven series, should the Battle of the GTA (as dubbed by Roger Lajoie) resume in the playoffs (it resumes next Saturday at Meadowvale first, though). I’m told that the Leafs have very, very little pitching depth after Taylor, and the Twins have run into him in both games. He pitches Leafs’ Sunday home games, and with the Twins not playing anymore Sunday games at Christie Pits we’ll get a chance to see how they fare against Leafs’ starters not named Matt Taylor, which is what they would get a shot at about five times in a playoff series.
I’ll probably add some further thoughts on how the Twins match up against the top of the league in a hypothetical-but-probably-likely first round series after the Barrie game. Look for my pieces on MississaugaTwins.ca in the next couple of days and check out my blogging after the Barrie game!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Washed Away
Just a quick post letting everyone know that tonight's game against Guelph is a wash. It's stopped raining, but Mississauga was absolutely pounded by rain all morning and for most of the afternoon, so I guess the field is unplayable.
The first place Barrie Baycats are in town Wednesday night to play a make-up game for an earlier rain out. No word yet on when this Guelph game will be replayed.
As it stands, I'll still be covering tomorrow's game at Christie Pits!
The first place Barrie Baycats are in town Wednesday night to play a make-up game for an earlier rain out. No word yet on when this Guelph game will be replayed.
As it stands, I'll still be covering tomorrow's game at Christie Pits!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Kicking the Skid
The Twins snapped a nasty seven game skid tonight at home against the Kitchener Panthers – fittingly, more or less everything that went wrong for them during the streak went right tonight, and the players’ relief was quite apparent after the game when I did my interviews.
The final score was 7-3, so one could fairly call it a decisive win. They got a stellar outing from Luis Castillo – exact numbers in my game stories, which should likely be up early in the week – and Shane Cole came in to shut Kitchener down. Castillo, if memory serves, only walked two Panthers, and if memory serves further, starters walking south of five guys per game was a huge problem during the streak.
The Twins were stellar in the clutch tonight – several big hits with runners in scoring position; they busted it open with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, including an RBI double that Henry Duke absolutely crushed off the wall. Duke, by the way, went on to add a two run homer in the seventh to put things out of reach. George Mensah also had a bomb for the Twins in the bottom of the second; it answered the Panthers’ first inning solo shot and knotted the game at one.
Unlike games past, I spoke to a couple of players in addition to coach Calcagni afterwards. I talked to Duke, which seemed fitting after his big offensive night, and he provided some interesting and insightful thoughts on his hitting – apparently, he had been killing the ball of late, but right at the centre fielder, which led to several 0 for’s with a bunch of loud outs. He forced himself to make the adjustment and start hitting to the left and right side, and the results spoke for themselves.
I also chatted with Castillo, who seemed relaxed and relieved after the W. He told me his curveball wasn’t working properly – and it’s true, a lot of pitches stayed up, above the chest, that looked like they were meant to break downward – but that his cutter compensated. Whatever it was, it wound up working fabulously and Castillo’s effort tonight is a big reason why the Twins are looking to start a streak in the other direction rather than break out of what would be an eight game death spiral.
I really like talking to the players – they’re all very media-friendly – and the reason I haven’t been talking to them lately has a lot more to do with the fact that they usually disappear pretty quickly after the games than a lack of interest on my part. I will certainly be trying to make players’ comments a regular part of my coverage from here on out.
Everyone I talked to seemed very relieved to have picked up the win – not that anyone is ever unhappy after a win, but you could tell it was a big one for them. The manner in which they came out and pasted a team that had beaten them by a single run in a game they should won at the height of their losing streak goes a long way to confirm what I – and most other people – have been saying all along, which is that they are far better than their record AND more than capable of hanging with every team in the league. Frankly, I think they are a far better team than Kitchener and I think it would take a bad game on the Twins’ part to see them lose to the Panthers again.
Coach C told me that as a team they’re trying to be a bit more aggressive – especially when it comes to solid secondary leads – and I think that came through tonight. An impressive first to third caught my eye, as did a steal of home on a passed ball. Aggression is obviously a good addition to any team; with the Twins being really young, you’d think they’re predisposed to be a fast team and it will be interesting to see if adding that element to their game can put them over the top.
Guelph is up next – it’ll be a good test; as you may remember, the Twins were slaughtered in Guelph by a count of 9-0 during that skid. It was an awfully played game by the Twins, and Guelph was tied with Kitchener in the standings going into tonight’s action, so we’ll see how the Twins handle them tomorrow. Look for more post-game bloggage around this time tomorrow!
The final score was 7-3, so one could fairly call it a decisive win. They got a stellar outing from Luis Castillo – exact numbers in my game stories, which should likely be up early in the week – and Shane Cole came in to shut Kitchener down. Castillo, if memory serves, only walked two Panthers, and if memory serves further, starters walking south of five guys per game was a huge problem during the streak.
The Twins were stellar in the clutch tonight – several big hits with runners in scoring position; they busted it open with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, including an RBI double that Henry Duke absolutely crushed off the wall. Duke, by the way, went on to add a two run homer in the seventh to put things out of reach. George Mensah also had a bomb for the Twins in the bottom of the second; it answered the Panthers’ first inning solo shot and knotted the game at one.
Unlike games past, I spoke to a couple of players in addition to coach Calcagni afterwards. I talked to Duke, which seemed fitting after his big offensive night, and he provided some interesting and insightful thoughts on his hitting – apparently, he had been killing the ball of late, but right at the centre fielder, which led to several 0 for’s with a bunch of loud outs. He forced himself to make the adjustment and start hitting to the left and right side, and the results spoke for themselves.
I also chatted with Castillo, who seemed relaxed and relieved after the W. He told me his curveball wasn’t working properly – and it’s true, a lot of pitches stayed up, above the chest, that looked like they were meant to break downward – but that his cutter compensated. Whatever it was, it wound up working fabulously and Castillo’s effort tonight is a big reason why the Twins are looking to start a streak in the other direction rather than break out of what would be an eight game death spiral.
I really like talking to the players – they’re all very media-friendly – and the reason I haven’t been talking to them lately has a lot more to do with the fact that they usually disappear pretty quickly after the games than a lack of interest on my part. I will certainly be trying to make players’ comments a regular part of my coverage from here on out.
Everyone I talked to seemed very relieved to have picked up the win – not that anyone is ever unhappy after a win, but you could tell it was a big one for them. The manner in which they came out and pasted a team that had beaten them by a single run in a game they should won at the height of their losing streak goes a long way to confirm what I – and most other people – have been saying all along, which is that they are far better than their record AND more than capable of hanging with every team in the league. Frankly, I think they are a far better team than Kitchener and I think it would take a bad game on the Twins’ part to see them lose to the Panthers again.
Coach C told me that as a team they’re trying to be a bit more aggressive – especially when it comes to solid secondary leads – and I think that came through tonight. An impressive first to third caught my eye, as did a steal of home on a passed ball. Aggression is obviously a good addition to any team; with the Twins being really young, you’d think they’re predisposed to be a fast team and it will be interesting to see if adding that element to their game can put them over the top.
Guelph is up next – it’ll be a good test; as you may remember, the Twins were slaughtered in Guelph by a count of 9-0 during that skid. It was an awfully played game by the Twins, and Guelph was tied with Kitchener in the standings going into tonight’s action, so we’ll see how the Twins handle them tomorrow. Look for more post-game bloggage around this time tomorrow!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Riding the Skid
It's been a while off the beat, but it looks like I’ll be back in a big way for the next little while – as it stands, I think I should be at the next five Twins’ games, so that should provide a chance for some consistent coverage and I can sharpen my understanding of the team as they hit the homestretch.
They are certainly scuffling – after beating Brantford in Brantford, they went on to drop seven straight and that streak is very much alive heading into tomorrow’s home game against Kitchener. That, of course, would be the same Kitchener team they lost to by a single run two weeks ago.
After that, they host London on Saturday and head to Christie Pitts to play the Maple Leafs on Sunday. The Leafs, surprisingly, are at 10-6 and only two and a half games out of first place; many of the Leafs’ devoted perennial followers seemed to think they were a weaker team this year than in years past when I spoke to a few the last time they played the Twins.
Before I get too far, I should selfishly and shamelessly plug a Jays article I wrote for U of T’s paper recently:
http://thevarsity.ca/article/19318
Anyways, back to the Twins (and things). At 5-11, they presently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot. Hamilton is four and a half games out; interestingly, the low point of the Twins’ skid thus far came when they fell to the Thunderbirds in Hamilton, giving the T-Birds their first (and to date only) win of the season. I still don’t think the Twins need to be genuinely concerned about the possibility of being overtaken by the lowly Birds, but if their losing streak continues and Hamilton can string a few together (that being, by the way, far less probable than the Twins continuing to lose, as far as I can see) it could certainly be tight heading into the homestretch.
That said, there are four teams within four games of the Twins, and as the season develops I fully expect a few of them will drop a bit and a few will rise. Conversely, I am near certain that the Twins are far better than that sub-.333 winning percentage, and they should pick up a few games against a couple of the teams above them. All in all, I still think the Twins will do better than eighth place – but hey, sometimes the whole expansion team thing is just too much to overcome and a team scuffles all year. We’ll see, obviously.
That attempt to climb in the standings begins tomorrow against Kitchener, who sit three games up on the Twins. London is actually tied with Kitchener, and it would be meaningful if they could pick up games against both teams this weekend.
I’m awfully tired tonight, so this is as long as it gets, I think. Look for post-game bloggage tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday night! I have a few general and a few specific things to say about the team that I haven’t gone into tonight, so my blog posts throughout the weekend will have that stuff scattered throughout.
And you’ll all be heartbroken to learn that I’ve yet to write those feature pieces for an insert in the Twins’ published-once-a-year program. Rightly or wrong – probably wrongly – I’ve felt swamped for the past little bit, not to mention having been out of town for four days out of the past week, so I just haven’t gotten around to them. I’m trying to settle down and focus on doing some substantive writing over the next little while, so they should get done soon.
They are certainly scuffling – after beating Brantford in Brantford, they went on to drop seven straight and that streak is very much alive heading into tomorrow’s home game against Kitchener. That, of course, would be the same Kitchener team they lost to by a single run two weeks ago.
After that, they host London on Saturday and head to Christie Pitts to play the Maple Leafs on Sunday. The Leafs, surprisingly, are at 10-6 and only two and a half games out of first place; many of the Leafs’ devoted perennial followers seemed to think they were a weaker team this year than in years past when I spoke to a few the last time they played the Twins.
Before I get too far, I should selfishly and shamelessly plug a Jays article I wrote for U of T’s paper recently:
http://thevarsity.ca/article/19318
Anyways, back to the Twins (and things). At 5-11, they presently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot. Hamilton is four and a half games out; interestingly, the low point of the Twins’ skid thus far came when they fell to the Thunderbirds in Hamilton, giving the T-Birds their first (and to date only) win of the season. I still don’t think the Twins need to be genuinely concerned about the possibility of being overtaken by the lowly Birds, but if their losing streak continues and Hamilton can string a few together (that being, by the way, far less probable than the Twins continuing to lose, as far as I can see) it could certainly be tight heading into the homestretch.
That said, there are four teams within four games of the Twins, and as the season develops I fully expect a few of them will drop a bit and a few will rise. Conversely, I am near certain that the Twins are far better than that sub-.333 winning percentage, and they should pick up a few games against a couple of the teams above them. All in all, I still think the Twins will do better than eighth place – but hey, sometimes the whole expansion team thing is just too much to overcome and a team scuffles all year. We’ll see, obviously.
That attempt to climb in the standings begins tomorrow against Kitchener, who sit three games up on the Twins. London is actually tied with Kitchener, and it would be meaningful if they could pick up games against both teams this weekend.
I’m awfully tired tonight, so this is as long as it gets, I think. Look for post-game bloggage tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday night! I have a few general and a few specific things to say about the team that I haven’t gone into tonight, so my blog posts throughout the weekend will have that stuff scattered throughout.
And you’ll all be heartbroken to learn that I’ve yet to write those feature pieces for an insert in the Twins’ published-once-a-year program. Rightly or wrong – probably wrongly – I’ve felt swamped for the past little bit, not to mention having been out of town for four days out of the past week, so I just haven’t gotten around to them. I’m trying to settle down and focus on doing some substantive writing over the next little while, so they should get done soon.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
On a Chilly Saturday...
The Twins were edged on Saturday night by the Kitchener Panthers – the final score was 6-5, and, mercifully, it was a bit more exciting than the Friday game. I’ve put off writing my game stories until tomorrow or so, and I don’t have my notes in front of me, nor do I care to go get them, so I’ll see what I remember.
The big story – I think – was that the Twins were a hell of a lot more aggressive on the basepaths than I have ever seen them be. By any standard, they were very aggressive. A couple of double steals; a straight steal of third; a steal of second to put the tying run in scoring position with two out in the bottom of the eighth. Matt Calcagni – who just joined the team after being released by a Northern League squad – had a really great at-bat in I think the fifth or so. He wound up striking out, but he fouled off about four or five pitches with a full count. Funny thing is, there were guys on first and second and they ran on each full count pitch, so they got their work in. And despite the strike out, the double steal was successful!
Coach Calcagni told us afterwards that as a team they want to be a bit more aggressive on the basepaths, and that the steals were called by him. I don’t think they lost any baserunners to over-aggression last night, so he certainly picked his spots. There will be some more precise comments from him about that part of the game in my story, whenever it is eventually written.
In terms of pitching, this time Brian Speck came out of the’ pen to do some long-relief work – he picked up Benson Merritt, who was pretty mediocre. As I remember it, both guys walked far too many batters. Anyways, this was a case of Speck being sent to the ‘pen to work out whatever issues kept him from being dominant as a starter. On the balance, he was fine – he certainly kept the Twins in the game, but the Panthers put up a crooked number on him late in the game to give themselves some breathing room, and obviously that wound up being the difference.
Another pitcher who really impressed me was Adam Zorzit – he worked a single inning of relief, and he has great stuff. It doesn’t break ten to twelve inches the way Mike McGilvray’s stuff does, but it buzzes and is pretty electric. He picked up the save in their first ever game in Hamilton, and even though I haven’t seen a lot of the Twins’ pen, I have to think I would be pretty comfortable putting him in for most save opportunities. When it’s up, I’ll take a look at tonight’s boxscore and see if he was put in to protect the one run lead, and now that I think of it I may as well check some of their previous wins and see what his role has been. If he isn’t the closer, the closer is pretty good – I’ll say that much!
To look at some long-term prognosis stuff: the Twins, having won a make-up game tonight in Oshawa by a count of 3-2, sit at 5-6. Not ideal, but far above anything that could have reasonably been expected of an expansion club. A few people have told me that they think the record is what it is because it’s a really young team that just needs to grow into hanging with some of the teams that have been together for years and years, and I think that theory may have some truth to it, as far as accounting for the actual wins and losses goes. Coach C said – and this will be in either the game piece or something else (more on that later) – he’s thrilled with where the team is, and if I were in his position I would probably feel the same. Baseball being baseball, as long as you know you can hang with anyone in the league – and the Twins now know that – it’s all about executing once you get into a short playoff series.
Anyways, we’ve been talking about some vague journalistic plans for my coverage of the team for a while now, and they’ve sort of materialized: we’re hoping, subject to executive approval, to run an insert in the programs given out at games with a feature piece (written by me, of course!) about the success of opening day/the arrival of the Twins in Mississauga/the results thus far/some kind of encouraging spin on the future and a feature player profile on Ryan Assis. I’ve always liked his story – because he left the BayCats specifically to play for his hometown team – and I finally got to talk to him after the Saturday game. The hope (at least on my end) is to turn that insert into a regularly changing feature – probably more general pieces about the overall direction of the team, organizational news and so on, and then one or two player profiles per issue.
I think that’s all I have to say. I’m not sure when I’ll be back on the beat – two weeks, maybe? I’ll see about contacting coach C to get enough material to do game pieces for the away ones I miss. I’ll probably blog mid-week or something with some Blue Jays material and misc. Twins news/comments!
The big story – I think – was that the Twins were a hell of a lot more aggressive on the basepaths than I have ever seen them be. By any standard, they were very aggressive. A couple of double steals; a straight steal of third; a steal of second to put the tying run in scoring position with two out in the bottom of the eighth. Matt Calcagni – who just joined the team after being released by a Northern League squad – had a really great at-bat in I think the fifth or so. He wound up striking out, but he fouled off about four or five pitches with a full count. Funny thing is, there were guys on first and second and they ran on each full count pitch, so they got their work in. And despite the strike out, the double steal was successful!
Coach Calcagni told us afterwards that as a team they want to be a bit more aggressive on the basepaths, and that the steals were called by him. I don’t think they lost any baserunners to over-aggression last night, so he certainly picked his spots. There will be some more precise comments from him about that part of the game in my story, whenever it is eventually written.
In terms of pitching, this time Brian Speck came out of the’ pen to do some long-relief work – he picked up Benson Merritt, who was pretty mediocre. As I remember it, both guys walked far too many batters. Anyways, this was a case of Speck being sent to the ‘pen to work out whatever issues kept him from being dominant as a starter. On the balance, he was fine – he certainly kept the Twins in the game, but the Panthers put up a crooked number on him late in the game to give themselves some breathing room, and obviously that wound up being the difference.
Another pitcher who really impressed me was Adam Zorzit – he worked a single inning of relief, and he has great stuff. It doesn’t break ten to twelve inches the way Mike McGilvray’s stuff does, but it buzzes and is pretty electric. He picked up the save in their first ever game in Hamilton, and even though I haven’t seen a lot of the Twins’ pen, I have to think I would be pretty comfortable putting him in for most save opportunities. When it’s up, I’ll take a look at tonight’s boxscore and see if he was put in to protect the one run lead, and now that I think of it I may as well check some of their previous wins and see what his role has been. If he isn’t the closer, the closer is pretty good – I’ll say that much!
To look at some long-term prognosis stuff: the Twins, having won a make-up game tonight in Oshawa by a count of 3-2, sit at 5-6. Not ideal, but far above anything that could have reasonably been expected of an expansion club. A few people have told me that they think the record is what it is because it’s a really young team that just needs to grow into hanging with some of the teams that have been together for years and years, and I think that theory may have some truth to it, as far as accounting for the actual wins and losses goes. Coach C said – and this will be in either the game piece or something else (more on that later) – he’s thrilled with where the team is, and if I were in his position I would probably feel the same. Baseball being baseball, as long as you know you can hang with anyone in the league – and the Twins now know that – it’s all about executing once you get into a short playoff series.
Anyways, we’ve been talking about some vague journalistic plans for my coverage of the team for a while now, and they’ve sort of materialized: we’re hoping, subject to executive approval, to run an insert in the programs given out at games with a feature piece (written by me, of course!) about the success of opening day/the arrival of the Twins in Mississauga/the results thus far/some kind of encouraging spin on the future and a feature player profile on Ryan Assis. I’ve always liked his story – because he left the BayCats specifically to play for his hometown team – and I finally got to talk to him after the Saturday game. The hope (at least on my end) is to turn that insert into a regularly changing feature – probably more general pieces about the overall direction of the team, organizational news and so on, and then one or two player profiles per issue.
I think that’s all I have to say. I’m not sure when I’ll be back on the beat – two weeks, maybe? I’ll see about contacting coach C to get enough material to do game pieces for the away ones I miss. I’ll probably blog mid-week or something with some Blue Jays material and misc. Twins news/comments!
Friday, June 5, 2009
As Uneventful As Uneventful Gets
I’m late blogging tonight, but I doubt anyone noticed. I just hammered out my Jays piece for U of T’s paper – which should be out early next week, if I had to guess – and I’m delighted to see that my piece on the Rogers Centre has been published today, in conjunction with the stadium’s 20th anniversary this past week & current weekend.
The article, for your reading enjoyment and my self-satisfaction, is here:
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090606/SPORT/706059848/1062
The title is the editor’s, and he made my paragraphs a bit smaller than I like them, and a bit of extra stuff about the recent renovations to the RC were taken out, as was a blurb about how it hosted the WBC (I guess that’s what you get when you turn stuff in 200 words over count).
Other than that, they’re all my words, and I’m quite happy with it. It’s cool to see myself in print (well, online – a copy of the actual thing would be fabulous but unlikely) halfway around the world in a big paper with journalists from the NYT and the like. Here’s to a lot more of that in the near future, dear blogosphere :)
Tonight the Twins were thoroughly unspectacular, with the exception of Shane Cole, who I’ll get to in a second, and they dropped a game that really should have been more competitive to the Oshawa Dodgers by a count of 6-3.
There’s truthfully not too much to say about the game – the scoring details will go in my game story, which’ll be up on MississaugaTwins.ca early in the week alongside whatever I write about tomorrow. The only real angles, as far as I’m concerned – but I’m kind of narrow minded, right? – were the pitchers tonight. All three who entered the game were noteworthy for different reasons.
Greg Byron went the distance for Oshawa. His line pretty much reflects what came up in the media scrum with coach Calcagni after the game – Byron was far from overpowering, but he had good control and was unassumingly very effective. He gave up a total of three runs, only two of which were earned, in the process of scattering seven hits. Notably, he struck out two without walking any – I think that’s the most telling stat, as it shows that he both was far from overpowering and had very good control.
On the Twins side, it was a story of polar opposites – Matt Martinow only managed three and a third, allowing a total of three earned runs (four total) while giving up eight hits. He both struck out and walked two Dodgers.
Shane Cole came in in relief and shut Oshawa down – he went the rest of the game, good for a measly two earned runs over five and two thirds, striking out five. Worryingly, he also walked four – but it’s tough to complain, given the net result.
Tonight was the second time I’ve seen Cole come in and pick up a starter that turned in a mediocre effort by giving the Twins a chance. He also did it for Brian Speck in the home opener against Brantford. I’m very, very certain that you’ll be seeing Cole get a start sometime soon – infer what you will of my reasons for thinking so, but if I were a betting man I would feel fine with a lot riding on that. If Cole performs anything like he has out of the ‘pen as a starter, he could well find himself part of the eventual rotation.
That’s about all I have to say as far as the actual game goes. I was a bit surprised to learn that tomorrow’s game is at 7 – no more afternoon home games for the Twins – but that’s alright with me, I’ll watch the Jays in the afternoon!
I met some friendly people in the Boston Pizza Beer Garden – who should be commenting on here, I think – that are just Mississaugans (I hope that’s the term – MS Word says it isn’t) following the team. Cool that those people exist. We were having some fun with the fact that the Dodgers’ pen was playing some strange game involving trying to throw a ball into a glove about twenty feet away – it looked just a bit silly, but I have to think that far worse goes on in major league pens.
Speaking of that Beer Garden, tonight they were giving out coupons for a BP individual sized pizza with the purchase of a beer – with two beers at $9 and an individual pizza $8-10 or so, you can drink at a profit! Sounds good to me, and I don’t think I’ll have any problem racking up those coupons over the summer.
In the coming week, I’m going to look at writing some fresh content for the team’s weekly e-newsletters (probably a week in review/preview of the upcoming week kind of thing) and we’ll probably be doing an insert for the only-printed-once-a-season team program. I’m still not sure what’ll go there – it might well be a player feature kind of thing as well as team/organization news. I have a good feature I haven’t yet written on opening day, and that might be a cool place to show it off.
Now that I’m starting to distribute the blog URL to people around the team, if you guys have any thoughts on stuff you think should go into my coverage, please let me know in the comments section!
The article, for your reading enjoyment and my self-satisfaction, is here:
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090606/SPORT/706059848/1062
The title is the editor’s, and he made my paragraphs a bit smaller than I like them, and a bit of extra stuff about the recent renovations to the RC were taken out, as was a blurb about how it hosted the WBC (I guess that’s what you get when you turn stuff in 200 words over count).
Other than that, they’re all my words, and I’m quite happy with it. It’s cool to see myself in print (well, online – a copy of the actual thing would be fabulous but unlikely) halfway around the world in a big paper with journalists from the NYT and the like. Here’s to a lot more of that in the near future, dear blogosphere :)
Tonight the Twins were thoroughly unspectacular, with the exception of Shane Cole, who I’ll get to in a second, and they dropped a game that really should have been more competitive to the Oshawa Dodgers by a count of 6-3.
There’s truthfully not too much to say about the game – the scoring details will go in my game story, which’ll be up on MississaugaTwins.ca early in the week alongside whatever I write about tomorrow. The only real angles, as far as I’m concerned – but I’m kind of narrow minded, right? – were the pitchers tonight. All three who entered the game were noteworthy for different reasons.
Greg Byron went the distance for Oshawa. His line pretty much reflects what came up in the media scrum with coach Calcagni after the game – Byron was far from overpowering, but he had good control and was unassumingly very effective. He gave up a total of three runs, only two of which were earned, in the process of scattering seven hits. Notably, he struck out two without walking any – I think that’s the most telling stat, as it shows that he both was far from overpowering and had very good control.
On the Twins side, it was a story of polar opposites – Matt Martinow only managed three and a third, allowing a total of three earned runs (four total) while giving up eight hits. He both struck out and walked two Dodgers.
Shane Cole came in in relief and shut Oshawa down – he went the rest of the game, good for a measly two earned runs over five and two thirds, striking out five. Worryingly, he also walked four – but it’s tough to complain, given the net result.
Tonight was the second time I’ve seen Cole come in and pick up a starter that turned in a mediocre effort by giving the Twins a chance. He also did it for Brian Speck in the home opener against Brantford. I’m very, very certain that you’ll be seeing Cole get a start sometime soon – infer what you will of my reasons for thinking so, but if I were a betting man I would feel fine with a lot riding on that. If Cole performs anything like he has out of the ‘pen as a starter, he could well find himself part of the eventual rotation.
That’s about all I have to say as far as the actual game goes. I was a bit surprised to learn that tomorrow’s game is at 7 – no more afternoon home games for the Twins – but that’s alright with me, I’ll watch the Jays in the afternoon!
I met some friendly people in the Boston Pizza Beer Garden – who should be commenting on here, I think – that are just Mississaugans (I hope that’s the term – MS Word says it isn’t) following the team. Cool that those people exist. We were having some fun with the fact that the Dodgers’ pen was playing some strange game involving trying to throw a ball into a glove about twenty feet away – it looked just a bit silly, but I have to think that far worse goes on in major league pens.
Speaking of that Beer Garden, tonight they were giving out coupons for a BP individual sized pizza with the purchase of a beer – with two beers at $9 and an individual pizza $8-10 or so, you can drink at a profit! Sounds good to me, and I don’t think I’ll have any problem racking up those coupons over the summer.
In the coming week, I’m going to look at writing some fresh content for the team’s weekly e-newsletters (probably a week in review/preview of the upcoming week kind of thing) and we’ll probably be doing an insert for the only-printed-once-a-season team program. I’m still not sure what’ll go there – it might well be a player feature kind of thing as well as team/organization news. I have a good feature I haven’t yet written on opening day, and that might be a cool place to show it off.
Now that I’m starting to distribute the blog URL to people around the team, if you guys have any thoughts on stuff you think should go into my coverage, please let me know in the comments section!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Back on the Saddle
I’ve fallen off the beat badly of late – no new material ever since the Barrie game eight days ago was rained out, if memory serves. Since then, the Twins have gone 2-2 – the high-water mark of which was beating the defending champion Brantford Red Sox 4-3 on Wednesday (on the road, to boot), and the low point a 9-0 drubbing at the hands of the Guelph Royals. In between, they dropped a 9-6 road decision to the Kitchener Panthers, and picked up their first ever home win by a count of 7-5 against the perennially awful Hamilton Thunderbirds.
(as an aside, I wrote some time ago that the Thunderbirds were ‘perennially competitive to the best of my knowledge’, but the best of my knowledge wound up not being good enough – the T-Birds have been easy pickings at the ICBL level for the past several years; apparently, that part of their program has been neglected in favour of their elite youth teams)
They’re back at home tonight (Friday) against Oshawa, and I’ll get some input from coach Calcagni about the four games I missed. I’m guessing that my line of questioning will be something like ‘how did you beat Brantford, get killed by Guelph and only barely beat Hamilton?’ and hopefully that will lead to some great insight. On Saturday, they host Kitchener to make it back-to-back home games, and then they get a rare Sunday off.
I’ll be at both home games, but after that I think I’ll be off the beat for another ten to fourteen days. It circles back to the whole pay grade variable – always! I’ll probably make an effort to contact coach Calcagni and the other principals for those games I miss and do game stories, something which I did not bother to do for the past several games I’ve missed due to being busy with some other stuff.
Supposedly I have a couple of Blue Jays pieces running in a daily paper in the United Arab Emirates fairly soon – once those are up, I’ll post the links right here! I also need to do a Jays piece for The Varsity (U of T’s newspaper) in the next 48 hours, and once that’s up I’m sure I’ll provide ya’ll with a link.
I know there’s (at least a few) readers, and there’s every reason to comment! I promise I’ll reply to all of them – feel free to provide opinions on anything Twins, Blue Jays or general baseball, and I’ll be happy to respond and debate you if necessary. Casual observations will be treated more kindly. ;)
Look for something up tomorrow night after the Oshawa game!
(as an aside, I wrote some time ago that the Thunderbirds were ‘perennially competitive to the best of my knowledge’, but the best of my knowledge wound up not being good enough – the T-Birds have been easy pickings at the ICBL level for the past several years; apparently, that part of their program has been neglected in favour of their elite youth teams)
They’re back at home tonight (Friday) against Oshawa, and I’ll get some input from coach Calcagni about the four games I missed. I’m guessing that my line of questioning will be something like ‘how did you beat Brantford, get killed by Guelph and only barely beat Hamilton?’ and hopefully that will lead to some great insight. On Saturday, they host Kitchener to make it back-to-back home games, and then they get a rare Sunday off.
I’ll be at both home games, but after that I think I’ll be off the beat for another ten to fourteen days. It circles back to the whole pay grade variable – always! I’ll probably make an effort to contact coach Calcagni and the other principals for those games I miss and do game stories, something which I did not bother to do for the past several games I’ve missed due to being busy with some other stuff.
Supposedly I have a couple of Blue Jays pieces running in a daily paper in the United Arab Emirates fairly soon – once those are up, I’ll post the links right here! I also need to do a Jays piece for The Varsity (U of T’s newspaper) in the next 48 hours, and once that’s up I’m sure I’ll provide ya’ll with a link.
I know there’s (at least a few) readers, and there’s every reason to comment! I promise I’ll reply to all of them – feel free to provide opinions on anything Twins, Blue Jays or general baseball, and I’ll be happy to respond and debate you if necessary. Casual observations will be treated more kindly. ;)
Look for something up tomorrow night after the Oshawa game!
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