Cabin Twelve

Well well well. An interesting final two games in Detroit. I was going to ignore the actual, you know, games here until the regular season start in 2010, but its kind of hard to ignore what’s gone on the last couple of days. First up, the afternoon tilt in Detroit:

Nate Robertson hit Denard Span in the 3rd, Scott Baker returned the favor in the 4th by hitting Marcus Thames (and went inside on him again in the 5th. Not a huge deal, though I’m sure the tempers were surging, given the import of the series and the intensity of the games. And that brings us to Jose Mijares in the bottom of the 8th. After sailing a pitch behind Adam Everett, both teams were warned. Next inning, Jeremy Bonderman hits the first batter on the first pitch and he’s tossed in a hurry. Delmon is pissed, not at Bonderman, but at Mijares. Watch the video here. The Twins win 8-3 and (barely) keep their playoff hopes alive.

A few quotes from the Twins and some other news after the jump.

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I hesitate to post this, since its pretty much been the winter of piling on Delmon Young for a lot of Twins fans. And while I haven’t been in love with the production the Twins have gotten out of Young so far, I understood the trade at the time: “Hey Tampa, we’ll trade you this talented guy who bitches about being here (Garza) for the talented guy that bitches about being there! It just might work!” But since about 2 people read this (including me), I’ll make a note of it. I didn’t catch the game this afternoon, but snagged this from rotoworld.

On a day in which he also hit his second homer, Delmon Young grounded into four double plays Wednesday against the Pirates.

The Twins grounded into six double plays in all. Young’s four double-play balls would have tied a major league record. It’s been done just twice during the regular season, first by Goose Goslin in 1933 and later by Joe Torre in 1975. At least that puts Young in pretty good company.

Not exactly a highlight, but situations that are this unique in a game that gets played as often as baseball are always interesting to me. Joe Crede, we don’t need you trying to duplicate it during the regular season.

Twins fans with a good memory may remember this game against the Angels from August of 2004, when Carlos Silva tied an American League record by inducing 6 double plays. (SIX!) Ahh, 2004, when Carlos Silva wasn’t a bad baseball tosser. In that game, a complete game for Silva, he allowed 11 hits and walked 3, but managed to keep the Angels from scoring. Today, the Twins managed a couple more base runners – with 10 hits and 5 walks – but did at least get 3 home. And, well, it was a Spring Training game, so it doesn’t matter anyway.

I am currently putting together a database of baseball stats in order to better understand the game fill my brain with absurd baseball trivia. And while I get things going, I’ve been occasionally asking random questions to get myself more comfortable navigating the tons of data available these days. I decided to post the answers to some of these questions and compile them in what I have dubbed, Random Bits of Useless Knowledge.

Here’s another thought that could be interesting, if I expand on it and present it in a more useful fashion. The rate at which the Twins “power” guys (I use that term loosely) hit Fly Balls, Ground Balls, Line Drives and Pop Ups. These are career numbers.

(The first column is the % of batted balls of each type, the second column in the % of total bases (from balls put in play – not walks) the player advanced with each type of hit)

Joe Crede pops up a lot. He also got a large % of his total bases on fly balls, so, you know.

Micheal Cuddyer does pretty well when he gets the ball in the air. So does Jason Kubel. Its too bad you can’t just say “hey, stop hitting the ball on the ground.”

Joe Mauer is really a ground ball guy. And he pops out 2.43% of the time. That’s close to never.

Justin Morneau is our fly ball king. No surprise there.

Delmon Young would probably benefit from getting the ball elevated more than Cuddyer and Kubel.