Spring is getting Closer

Time to come out of winter hibernation.  I say winter with “tongue-in-cheek”, we’d had one of the mildest winters I can remember here in the Twin Cities.  I think we’ve only had temperatures go below zero less than ten times this winter. Anyway back to the subject at hand.

The Minnesota “snowbirds” are down in Tuscon, AZ shooting at the newly expanded Tuscon Trap range for the ATA Spring Grand.  I see Bob & Lou Ann Munson are now residents of North Dakota.  Junior shooter Zac Warweg shot a 99×100 in doubles with his 1st 50×50 This got him into a shoot off against a Arkansas junior. Zac went on to win the shoot off to secure the trophy.  Other Minnesota shooters posting good scores during Preliminary week were, Scott Gens, Dean Neumann, and Dean Walker. Championship week starts today.

Best of all the “Boy’s of Summer” have started reporting to in Fort Myers, Fla for the start of spring training.  The 33 pitchers and 8 catchers reported in this Saturday and started working out on Sunday.  Best of all Joe Mauer is healthy and looking forward to this year.  Gardie has added 3 extra days of practice because Grapefruit League opener against the Rays on March 3rd.  I haven’t seen any comments on Justin Morneau’s health this past week, hopefully he will be ready to play 1st base without any concussion issues.

Be seeing you,

Ron

The Bleeding is Over

The Twins completed the 2011 season tonight just missing the 100 game lost mark for the year. Carl Pavano pitched a 5 hit shutout with Trevor Plouffe hitting a walk-off single to win the game 1-0.

The Twins ended the season with a 63 wins and 99 losses and 8 players on the disable list. I have hopes Gardinare will be able to figure out why the team seamed to be so injury prone this year.
In the off-season I’m hoping they can resign free agent Michael Cuddyer, without him I believe the Twins would have lost 110 or more games this year. I’d also like to see them trade Liriano and pickup some bullpen help. As for next year, Blackburn is having sore-arm surgery Friday,  Joe Mauer is recovering from Pneumonia, Repko is experiencing concussion-like symptoms.

Jason Morneau is still feeling the effects of the mid-season concussion, had foot and knee surgeries Sept. 20th.  Any bets he’ll ever return to major league ball?

We don’t have much to look forward to this year, the Vikings can’t score any points in the 2nd half establishing a laughing stock record of 0-3.  The Minnesota Gopher football team probably not win another game this year.  The Wild hockey team, well maybe, their season is just starting.

Least I forget, the Lynx are playing in the WNBA finals starting this weekend.  Maybe the “Girls” will show-up the “Boy’s” Minnesota sports teams how to win a Championship.

I probably will not be posting anything for awhile.  Winter Jackpot is just around the corner.  Hope to see you at , as a friend Say’s Bison this winter.

Ron

Typing Away

Pretty Much Say’s it All!!

Minnesota Twins 59-90,  Games back 27.5
With 14 games left for the season, they could lose 100 games.

	Baker, Scott (P)	09/16	15-day DL	Possibly September	Right elbow soreness	Slated to throw bullpen session Sept. 17.
	Blackburn, Nick (P)	09/05	Out for Season	2012	Entrapped right forearm nerve	Transferred to 60-day DL September 4.
	Casilla, Alexi (2B)	09/12	15-day DL	September	Right hamstring strain	Worked out at Target Field Sept. 10.
	Kubel, Jason (RF)	09/16	Day-to-day	TBD	Left foot pain	Exited Sept. 16 game early.
	Mauer, Joe (C)	09/16	Out for Season	2012	Pneumonia	Diagnosed on September 15.
	Morneau, Justin (1B)	09/16	Day-to-day	Possibly 2012	Mild concussion-like symptoms	Team unsure he will return this season.
	Nishioka, Tsuyoshi (SS)	09/10	Day-to-day	TBD	Sore right oblique	Expected to miss a few games as of Sept. 10.
	Span, Denard (LF)	09/06	15-day DL	TBD	Migraine symptoms	Participated in first full workout on Sept. 6.
	Valencia, Danny (3B)	09/16	Day-to-day	TBD	Flu	Late scratch from Sept. 16 lineup.

Free Fall!

It’s official, the Twins are in total free-fall. They have only won 5 games in the month of August. Winning only one of 8 games in the current home-stand. Thome and Kubel were placed on wavers this past Wednesday and ESPN is reporting that the “tribe” wants Thome and the White Sox are after Kubel.

Starting Pitching for the Twins are in such bad shape, Liriano is the only one with more than 1 win in August. Liriano went out after two innings with an injury. I expect more players to be placed on wavers before the end of this month. I’d also like to see the Twins buyout Nishioka’s contract and send him back to Japan. Look to see some more transactions happen after the Chicago series the last three days of the month.

The Twins management needs to look into why there have been so many injuries to key players this year. Something isn’t right with training or staff.

At least we are finally having “Minnesota” type weather. Dove season starts nThursdaysday. Buffalo Gun Club is wrapping up the summer trap league this week with shoot-offs next Wednesday. Don’t forget National Trapshooting Day Buffalo Sept.18.

Twins……….

Well the boys of summer are out of the AL Central race. So they trade Young to Detroit when they show up at the ballpark today. In his first at-bat he smokes a homer off our “ACE” pitcher, Lairino. The bright spot came when Thome hit homeruns 599 & 600 tonight. Oh, did I mention they also won the game?

I expect we’ll see Thome as DH in the home stand against the Yankees then Gardy will start looking at some AAA & AA players.

I Just Don’t See It!

After the way the Twins have played the past 8 games, I just don’t see how they can win the AL Central and this really ‘Bums” me out!!!!!
Tonight the “Ace” pitcher, Liriano gives up 7 walks and 3 runs in 6 innings. Matt Capps comes in for the 7th and loads the bases, walking 2 and giving up 1 hit. Dumatrait comes in and attempts to make a play on an   infield hit and falls down with Boston scoring on this play. Burnett comes in and gets the rest of Boston for the inning.

Lost another one making it 6 in a row!

 

Pitching?

OMG, the starting pitchers for Twins have attained an ERA of 8.17 runs on this road trip!  I really can’t see them breaking .500 for the season.
The only highlight to yesterdays game came in the 8th inning with Jim Thome hitting his 598th home-run. I hope Thome can get his 600th home-run in this home-stand.

Then after the game yesterday Liriano was quoted saying,  ”"I was getting behind in the count early, I made some pitches, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

It’s time to send him down to Rochester!

 

Fire Sale

Based on the performance of the Twins starting pitchers the past week, I can feel a fire sale coming on before the end of this week!

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Time to Cut Bait!

I think it’s time for Gardy to admit that left-hander Francisco Liriano just isn’t going to cut it as a major league starting pitcher!!!

Crazy Summer

Wow, I can’t believe the weather this year. Started with Minneapolis getting the 3rd highest total snow fall, in history,  for a winter season.   Major spring flooding everywhere in the upper-Midwest.  Now it’s rain! The Mississippi river in Anoka, Minnesota is as high now as I’ve ever seen it in the spring. Minot, ND had so much rain the town and gun club flooded. Yesterday we had flash floods in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis causing highway I-35W at I-694 to be closed for most of Saturday. The southwestern states are either in a major drought or are burning with wildfires.

I went to the club yesterday to shoot some trap and just managed to finish 100 targets because of the heat and humidity. Next week the Iowa State shoot starts and they’ve have forecast high 90′s, all next week, with the heat index of over 100 for the Twin cities. I fully expect the temps to be very close to 100 in Cedar Falls.  Those temps at the Iowa State shoot are not fun, so I expect I’ll be staying home.

Good luck to my friends that attend.

Keeping Cool!!