Hey, Ransom is about as house money as we get here.  Woo hoo!

Is it already a Alex 1/2 rest day? I guess might as well on the artificial turf.

You have to get a lefty masher like Ransom in there whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Day game after a night game and Posado is playing?

Obviously Girardi understands the importance of this game.

It must hurt to hit behind Ransom. I guess the idea is to have a runner in front of Jeter, but that seems to me a good way to get a DP.

It’s like batting the pitcher 8th.  Presumably Gardner would try to steal as well, obviating the DPness of Jeter.

It’s like batting the pitcher 8th.

Actually, it’s like batting the pitcher seventh, and batting another pitcher eighth.  Cabrera hit .225/.312/.395 in June and is hitting .190/.227/.333 in July.  Gardner ain’t exactly lighting it up lately, either.

Does it not make sense to rest or DH Arod only when a righty is on the mound so Hinske get the ABs?  I just don’t get it at all it seems to me that Cody should only play if Jeter or Cano need to be spelled for a day or are hurt.  Is somebody holding Girardi’s kids for Ransom or does somebody have embarassing pictures of Girardi

It must hurt to hit behind Ransom. I guess the idea is to have a runner in front of Jeter, but that seems to me a good way to get a DP.

If Gardner gets on in front of Jeter, he should be on third by the 3rd pitch, thus eliminating the DP possibility.

Ransom and Will Nieves are the two worst position players we’ve had in a long time.  Enrique Wilson and Cervelli are HOFers compared to those two who should have outlived their welcome a long time before they did/will

Maybe Ransom will jump real high to catch a ball that bounces off the astroturf.

Cabrera hit .225/.312/.395 in June and is hitting .190/.227/.333 in July.

Cabrera is really establishing a pattern.  Hot early and then fade into suckitude.

Three hard hit balls in three ABs.

The Twins 3-6 can rival most teams in baseball. The rest, except for Span, not so much.

Pick your spots, Al.

Radio voices moaning about losing Aceves in the pen, folks ##### about Joba not being in the pen, the steady roar for Hughes in the pen. Bullpen bullpen bullpen!

[9] I assume it’s just the CW that if you’ve got a guy who needs regular rest, you sit him day games after night games.

I’m the first transgressor?

Bullpen bullpen bullpen!

You know, if you had 12 or 13 lights-out relievers, you wouldn’t need starting pitchers at all.

Has Hinske played at all yet?  Yeesh.

I would have sat Arod last night and does Hinske even project to do worse against a lefty then Ransom who has shown no sign of being able to hit anyone this year.

Baseclogging!  Yay.

Has there been any solid indication from Girardi/FO that they will use Hinske at 3B?

[16] good point.

I wonder if A-Rod has always had the ability to walk at this rate but never wanted to.

I’m the first transgressor?

I haven’t put in any word filter.  Did you type bitch and it got censored?

ARod says HA! to my baseclogging comment.

A-Rod just stole a base. He just STOLE a base. How unethical. Disgusting.

I hope Liriano doesn’t return to pre-injury form today.  He’s welcome to do so after today, however.

Bitch?

I really think it’s annoying when the radio voices refer to must batted balls as “lined” when I think “pulled” would be more descriptive, most of the time, it ends being a foul ball. At least it wouldn’t get my hopes up.

A-Rod has only put up an OBP of .400+ in four seasons of his career.  That makes this season pretty impressive considering he’s coming off an injury.

Or what rilkefan said. Maybe he’s always had the capability.

Now would be a bad time to be a hacker, Robbie.

Is Cano using Damon’s bats?  He’s shattered three in the last two days already.

Has there been any solid indication from Girardi/FO that they will use Hinske at 3B?

You mean besides using him there for two innings the other night?  Hey, I kid!  It’s a good point: although Hinske came up as a 3B, he’s played all of 134 innings there in the past four and a half seasons.

Never mind, it was bitch, but I copy and pasted, so I blame the originating copy.

Gameday suggests a bit of squeezing for Liriano.

Oh, you can just feel the Melky double play special lurking in your sub-conscious right now. Prove me wrong, Leche.

The dreaded bases-loaded no-out situation.

It doesn’t seem like Liriano has fully gained his arm strength back. His fastball is around 91 rather than 94-95 in 2006, and his slider is also a couple of miles slower.

How long does it take for the Tommy John surgery guys to regain the arm strength?

Hmm, hacking is ok if the opposing fielder screws up, I guess.

[34] - Yeah, I missed that.  I would think they would also might be hesitant to use him on the turf, presumably a tougher situation to play 3B?  It just seems to me Hinske wasn’t really brought in to be the backup 3B, more the Nady replacement.

That was suboptimal.

The Yankees don’t really ever have RISP.  That would imply that the runners can actually score from their respective bases.  They just have runners….or RIP.

Gardner is batting 9th so that he doesn’t come up with bases loaded and <2 outs.

How long does it take for the Tommy John surgery guys to regain the arm strength?

If you can believe what I read, it’s supposed to take about a year for the arm-strength to come back, but another six months to regain your command.  Liriano’s surgery was more than two and a half years ago.

How long does it take for the Tommy John surgery guys to regain the arm strength?

I thought velocity comes back before command, usually within a year.  I think with Liriano the issue is the Twins re-worked his mechanics to lessen the likelihood of re-injury and it’s taken away some of his stuff.

I’m sure this has been covered, buy why Ransom over Pena?  Is Pena enough of a prospect to warrant playing him every day?

God I hate Ransom.

I’ll give credit to Ransom for getting from 0-2 to 3-2.  He could have hacked at a lot of those pitches.

I was just kidding of course!

Give me back my walk.

I’d walk a lefty masher like Cody Ransom too.

I’m okay with Cody.

Because Pena should play every day and he’s not that good and he can’t hit and Yankee fans think that every Andy Stankewicz is a Derek Jeter in the rough?

And, yeah, Cody Ransom sucks, but he’s not really probably a .177 hitter?  And how many PAs does he get anyway?

Walking Ransom with the bases loaded should be a fifty game suspension without pay or maybe an outright ban from baseball.

Gardner’s going gap right here. You can feel at in the wind at the Metrodome.

Fear the 8-9!

Ransom walks??

I thought you were supposed to swing at 2-0 pitches only if you felt you could drive them.  That’s what I learned in high school and that’s why I never swung at 2-0 pitches.  Why is Brett swinging at 2-0 pitches?

I think Liriano had to ditch his hard slider to preserve his elbow.  He just doesn’t have the same repetoire he had when he was dominant that one year.

That’s why in stickball I always pull the bat away from the way inside pitches.  That’s a cheap strike.

Cody’s not a bad dude.  Hate the GM for having him on the team, or hate the manager for playing him.

I hate the radio voices. One of the radio voices gleefully suggests, because once it seemed the Yankee rarely had the lead in games, and now they frequently have the lead in games, that you can’t say anything about baseball. Radio, not say anything, that makes sense.

I thought you were supposed to swing at 2-0 pitches only if you felt you could drive them.  That’s what I learned in high school and that’s why I never swung at 2-0 pitches.  Why is Brett swinging at 2-0 pitches?

He didn’t go to your high school?

I’m sure this has been covered, buy why Ransom over Pena?

Same as Molina over Cervelli.  You’ve got to look at the guys behind Pena and Cervelli on the depth chart before you DFA guys like Molina or Ransom.  If you option Pena and somebody gets hurt, then Pena is the starter and Ransom is still the backup.  If you cut Ransom and somebody gets hurt, then Pena is the starter and Kevin Russo is the backup.

Wow, Liriano already up to 51 pitches?

Left on left, Liriano locates a fastball inside perfectly, and Gardner fouls it away. In 2006 he’s back in the dugout. Terrible sign for the Twins and their starter…

Gutty and gritty.  52 pitches to get through the order once without allowing a hit.  Thanks, Matt Tolbert, too.

The Twins bullpen is going to be totally effed up after this series.

Fair point, MC.  But man does it not seem like Cody Ransom is doing a better job than Kevin Russo would.  But it’s not like I’m huge on Pena either so yeah, I can accept that.

And don’t worry, SG.  “I hate Ransom” is just shorthand for “I hate that Ransom’s playing”.  I like that he can jump six feet in the air?

[56] Excellent work. Were you also the one who flashed the marquee tag too? That might have been someone else?

Everyone steals home, except for the Yankees. Was it at least close?

Ha, Jeter actually got the first hit of the game for the Yanks.

[63]  Is Kevin Russo (I know nothing about him) really any worse than Ransom?

A HIT with RIP?

Jonathan, [42] was hilarious.
That’s becoming a staple.

Just because you saw it on SportsCenter last night…

Explanation for the at work crowd?  Was that a pickoff attempt at first that Morneau threw home?  Was that another silly baserunning gamble?

[56] Excellent work. Were you also the one who flashed the marquee tag too? That might have been someone else?

That was someone else, although I got in on the action. But I can claim no credit for this one. I searched google, then copied and pasted.

Wha?

Ellsbury can be safe on that play every time.  He should do it every time he’s on third.

Jason Kubel has always had tremendous power before his knee blew out. Good to see Twins getting some value out of him. They never did out of Restovich.

About that steal: with a pitcher battling/struggling/teetering, why get so cute?

I assume with Russo, it’s the injury risk, he seem to put up decent numbers, and probably would have been up instead of Pena. I also think under the doomsday scenario, if healthy, Russo would start and Pena would remain the backup.

Actually, Sam, I saw it, and it wasn’t very good.
(But I get your point.)

Not watching the game, but saw where Liriano walked Ransom.  Man, Liriano has really fallen far.

Aceves seems to be imploding…

Is Kevin Russo (I know nothing about him) really any worse than Ransom?

It doesn’t matter.  He’s nothing special, and he’s been on the DL already this year (twice, I think).  While I take a back seat to no one in bitching about keeping crappy veterans over good rookies, I don’t see how it helps you to give up depth by cutting crappy veterans so you can play (or burn options on) crappy rookies.

Okay, this is getting more frustrating.

I searched google, then copied and pasted.

That ain’t nothing.

Settle down Ace, and keep the Twinkies down.

Jesus. Ransom.

When did the Twins stop bunting with men at second and no outs? I thought they played the game the right way.

Russo please!

If Tomko really is the long man today, the Yankees will need to put a bunch more runs on the board.

I ALMOST asked what the over/under would be on Ransom errors/low throws to first today.

The radio voices said the back up won’t get to play much with Mauer as the catcher. Like I said, I assume Mauer gets plenty of time as DH.

Boy, Ransom ain’t gonna win the fan over.

  I like that he can jump six feet in the air?

Works for me.

Is Kevin Russo (I know nothing about him) really any worse than Ransom?

Not sure how Russo projects defensively, I had him projected to hit .255/.293/.337 coming into the year, CHONE had him at .256/.294/.344, PECOTA at .2343/.272/.305 and ZiPS at .247/.284/.317.  Ransom projected around .234/.308/.416, which would be worth about 10 more runs over 650 PAs.  Obviously Ransom hasn’t been close to his projections, so maybe Russo is better.

That play doesn’t exactly help Ransom’s case.

[83]“While I take a back seat to no one in bitching about keeping crappy veterans over good rookies, I don’t see how it helps you to give up depth by cutting crappy veterans so you can play (or burn options on) crappy rookies.”

The point is that the rookie (Pena) is better.  He will help the team win more games now.

If the downside is that you might have to burn an option on Russo, well that’s no downside at all.

If they veteran is just as good, i.e. Molina, then I agree, kept the veteran.

Okay, now I hate Ransom again.

Post 85: In reference to Ransom losing a pop-up for comedy relief. Oddly clairvoyant, but in all the worst ways…

Does Ransom average a half an error per game?  If he’s a utility infielder, he should be able to, ya know, field.  Any one of us could have made that throw to first.

Having Ransom on the roster is just stupid when Peña is a much better player, they are on different levels.

I have nothing against Ransom personally.  I hope Boston or the Mets sign him to a long term contract but I don’t want him to play except when there absolutely are no other options cause even for a utility IF he sucks.

Does Ransom’s projection have much value, given that he is 33?  I would expect a 33 year old with a given set of AAA numbers to be worse in the majors than a 23 year old with those same numbers.

Denard Span’s gameday picture seems as if he’s looking at me as food.

Like with Hinske, 3B is probably the worse of Ransom’s utility position. Which is kinda whatever as that’s the primary need to fill in position.

Any one of us could have made that throw to first.

I dispute this claim from personal experience.

Question: I know this is silly, but I’m just unsure.  Does that second run really get charged as earned?  There’s no way that run scores without the error.