Pretty Please Gardy?????

[greebs]

"I'm pretty sure the people who voted for the AL MVP knew who had the better year between the two...LMAO at Sledles... Cuddyer was the BEST hitter in Baseball the last half of the season and Crushed Kubel who had GREAT year in EVERY category offensively. Kubell was ice and Cyder was clutch."

you are getting a little carried away with this mvp talk. cuddy got one 8th place vote and one 10th place vote. kubel got one 8th place vote. I'm not saying that kubel necessarily had a better year as they both had good seasons but to say one was immensely better based on one more 10th place vote is pushing it. I seem to remember that the twins had another player who placed just a little bit higher in mvp race last year and have to think he was the best hitter on the team for the whole season. I think his name was joe something or other.

[PierBridge]

I said they both had great career seasons and Cuddy crushed Kubel in the 2nd half..which he did.

Unfortunately both and more so Cuddyer aren't having such years.

[blue_healer_guy]

Alot of ball to be played yet, but Smith has got to be thinking of that 12 million (i think) twins option for cuddy next year. Ouch.

[PierBridge]

Even if he has the 2nd half he had last year it's doubtful we'll exercise that option.

[SledNeck]

Alot of ball to be played yet, but Smith has got to be thinking of that 12 million (i think) twins option for cuddy next year. Ouch.

bad year to be mired in an epic slump

[Scott K]

Quote:

MINNEAPOLIS --With Joe Mauer not starting as he gets a day off to rest, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire did a little tweaking with the top of his batting order.

Rather than moving Justin Morneau up to the 3rd spot as he's done when Mauer is not playing, Gardenhire shifted Delmon Young up from the eighth spot last night into the No. 3 hole for today's game.

"We have the soul patrol leading off," Gardenhire said. "We have [Denard] Span, [Orlando] Hudson, and Delmon. And that was self-proclaimed by Delmon that the soul patrol will be the top three in the lineup today."

Young's reference of course was to the Twins' original "Soul Patrol" which was the outfield consisting of Jacque Jones, Torii Hunter and Matt Lawton. And Young said that he was part of another soul patrol outfield during his time in Tampa Bay with B.J. Upton and Carl Crawford.

Even without Mauer, the Twins lineup appears pretty deep today. Michael Cuddyer is back at third base and Jim Thome gets his third straight start at DH as he sits one HR behind Harmon Killebrew (573) for 10th place on the all-time home run list.

[PierBridge]

Quote:

bad year to be mired in an epic slump

Could be worse.... like being stuck on the range "Wisconsin north" in some dive bar..

Have a great 4th Sled..!

[PierBridge]

I like the move...maybe that will snap Delmon out of the little funk he's in right now which is a 4-24 slump and .154 average the last 7 days!

As always Go Delmon Go Twins!

[SledNeck]

make that 51 RBIs

[PierBridge]

make that 51 RBIs

Yep and if Raucsh can hold the lead the game winning hit!!!!!

[Born2Fish]

Nice win. Really needed that one. Got scary for a few minutes, but Raucsh held em off.

[soldoncass]

Young's rbi was the 3rd run, Hudsons rbi was #2 the game winner. I certainly hope Gardy is smart enough to put Young back down in the order(7th or 8th)....1 for 4 today, so what is that now? 5 for 28? Kubel(2) and Cuddy(3) were on base all day, with NOBODY in the rbi position. That is why Young has so many rbi's on the year...Kubel and Cuddy getting on base in front of him. Thome strikes out too much nowdays. Morneau had a stretch with no rbi's because #1 and #2 hitters and even Mauer ,weren't getting on base.

[Coach1310]

Young's rbi was the 3rd run, Hudsons rbi was #2 the game winner. I certainly hope Gardy is smart enough to put Young back down in the order(7th or 8th)....1 for 4 today, so what is that now? 5 for 28? Kubel(2) and Cuddy(3) were on base all day, with NOBODY in the rbi position. That is why Young has so many rbi's on the year...Kubel and Cuddy getting on base in front of him. Thome strikes out too much nowdays. Morneau had a stretch with no rbi's because #1 and #2 hitters and even Mauer ,weren't getting on base.

The OBP of the two Twins players directly in front of Cuddy this year...

Mauer .378

Morneau .446

The OBP of the two Twins players directly in front of Young this year..

Cuddy .330

Kubel .354

Yup.... I guess Cuddy hasn't had many chances at any RBI's and Young has had more!!

[soldoncass]

I never said CUDDY hasn't had chances...he has and hit a lot of ATUM-BALLS, SO FAR. Young has had a great year, for HIM....SO FAR....but a lot of the reason for that has been WHERE HE WAS HITTING and WHO he was following. I happen to LIKE someone like YOUNG as a second clean-up hitter....rather than Punto or Tolbert etc.......HIS #ers are hard to argue with. He certainly HAD a HOT stretch...that isn't NOW.

[SledNeck]

Could be worse.... like being stuck on the range "Wisconsin north" in some dive bar..

Have a great 4th Sled..!

Are you seriously going to compare God's country to Northern Wisconsin?

[Coach1310]

I never said CUDDY hasn't had chances...he has and hit a lot of ATUM-BALLS, SO FAR. Young has had a great year, for HIM....SO FAR....but a lot of the reason for that has been WHERE HE WAS HITTING and WHO he was following. I happen to LIKE someone like YOUNG as a second clean-up hitter....rather than Punto or Tolbert etc.......HIS #ers are hard to argue with. He certainly HAD a HOT stretch...that isn't NOW.

While I think we both understand the only way to get RBI's is to have guys on in front of us, how can you take away from Delmon by saying the only reason he is having a good year is because of who he is hitting behind, when Cuddy is batting behind what a lot of people would argue are 2 of the top 5-10 hitters in the American League?? I know a lot of guys are quick to mention all of the RBI's Cuddy had down the stretch last year. If Young were hitting in Cuddy's spot all this year, it wouldn't be crazy to think he would have about as many RBI's as the AL Leaders do.

I hope Cuddy gets some breaks and comes around and I hope Young keeps hitting, but Cuddy has ALWAYS benefited from hitting behind Mauer and Morneau and Young has done a great job of producing at the bottom of the lineup.

[pikestabber]

I got a new order for us. Guys may have to shift and play new positions though, and we may have to tap AAA again, but I think this is our best shot at knocking on the playoff door:

Harris

Punto

Plouffe

Valencia

Tolbert

Hughes

Ramos

Casilla

Cuddyer

Hmmm... I guess Cuddyer doesn't look so bad afterall

[Coach1310]

Hopefully that wouldn't be the batting order.... because Harris should be hitting about 12th in that group

Hopefully Cuddy comes around.... it doesn't get much better than hitting behind Mauer and Morneau.....

[soldoncass]

The BEST PLACE TO HIT is in FRONT of Morneau....pitchers don't like to pitch to him with runners on. AND after Morneau, the bases have been emptied, nobody to drive in. BEST place for YOUNG is #7....for HIM and THE TEAM GOOD. IF Young actually learns to work the count a little bit, he might move up a couple spots. I really hope YOUNG STARTS hitting again, he's slumping now.

[SledNeck]

The BEST PLACE TO HIT is in FRONT of Morneau....pitchers don't like to pitch to him with runners on. AND after Morneau, the bases have been emptied, nobody to drive in. BEST place for YOUNG is #7....for HIM and THE TEAM GOOD. IF Young actually learns to work the count a little bit, he might move up a couple spots. I really hope YOUNG STARTS hitting again, he's slumping now.

another CLUTCH night for Delmon

[harvey lee]

I hope Mauer returns to his normal hitting. Seems like no clutch hitting.

[soldoncass]

yup, CUDDY gets on...Young drives him in....FROM THE 8th spot. Good job Gardy!! #1-3 were 2 for 14? not hard to figure out why Morneau's rbi # have slowed down. I want ALL our TWIN'S to take 3 days off for the all-star break. Get some rest!

[Getanet]

Did everyone see that missed call at 3B last night? Yikes, I'm not a fan of replay but MLB umps sure aren't helping their cause.

I realize it didn't impact the outcome, but I was almost more upset by that blown call than the loss. Granted, Cuddy could have applied the tag a little more forcefully, but if the runner is throw out by 10 feet and makes no attempt to avoid the tag, it's relatively safe to assume he's out.

[Scott M]

Yeah, tough loss. The blown call didn't matter as it turned out....Great game through 26 Tampa Bay outs.

[SledNeck]

Great GUN DOWN at the plate by Delmon

Hes the complete player

Back to leading the TEAM in RBIs tied for 8th in the AL

WOW!