BYTO’s Top Offensive Plays of 2009!
Recently, the fans at BYTO voted for the top offensive plays of the Twins’ 2009 season. In a season full of great moments and amazing plays, it was surprisingly easy to whittle the list down to ten, but we did it! Here’s the results of that voting!
10. Justin Morneau's Grand Slam.
May 24 vs. Milwaukee
Nothing more to see here than a huge shot to right field to open up this game against the Brewers.
9. Joe Mauer's Mammoth Upper Deck Shot.
May 24 vs. Milwaukee
Mauer takes a brief hiatus from his pansy opposite field home runs to hit one in real man's land.
8. Joe Mauer's RBI Single off Zach Greinke.
October 3 vs. Kansas City
Mauer takes the late season showdown between the presumptive MVP and Cy Young winners and plates the first run of the game for the Twins.
7. Michael Cuddyer's Triple to Finish off the Cycle.
May 22 vs. Milwaukee
Cuddy becomes the third Twin in two seasons to happen to hit for a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game after ripping a pitch into the Dome's left field corner.
6. Joe Crede's Walk-off Grand Slam.
May 14 vs. Detroit
Apparently Tiger fans feel Joe Crede treats them unfairly, and this walk of grand slam might be exhibit A.
5. Orlando Cabrera's Go Ahead Homer in Game 163.
October 6 vs. Detroit
Orlando Cabrera scrapes the wall to put the Twins ahead 2-1 in the seventh. Some think that this ball should have been caught, but they don't realize that Cabrera is a veteran winner, and knows how to handle the bat.
4. Joe Mauer's First at Bat Home Run.
May 1 vs. Kansas City
Joey's amazing season starts out with something that would become all too familiar, a home run just over the wall in left field.
3. Michael Cuddyer's Go ahead Shot in Game 161.
October 3 vs. Kansas City
After blowing the lead assembled against Greinke by Mauer and Young, Cuddyer continues to carry the team with this big solo homer putting the team back in front.
2. Alexi Casilla's Game 163 Winning Single.
October 6 vs. Detroit
Casilla's poor tag at third a few innings earlier had him set up to be the villian, but his single through the right side to put the Twins in the playoffs ended any thought of that.
1. Jason Kubel's Go Ahead Grand Slam to Complete the Cycle.
April 17 vs. California
What's to say? Jason Kubel announced his presence with authority by capping off an improbable cycle with this grand slam to give the Twins a two run lead.
Stay tuned for the Twins' top defensive plays of the 2009 season, as voted by the fans at BYTO!
Be sure to check out our BYTO forums for more discussion and information.
Posted by Klobs on 10/30 at 11:29 AM
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The RBI Baseball School of Post Season Pitching Management
Here’s a token blog to piss off someone off and maybe explain a little bit why pitching needs to be a lot higher on the Twins offseason shopping list. In the arguments of why playoff baseball is won from the top of your rotation down, the following question was asked to me after I pointed out that the team that has led the American League in ERA during postseason play has been the league’s World Series representative.
Q: How many of those teams led the American League in ERA in the regular season play.
The answer is what he wanted to hear, but not for the reason he wants to hear. It doesn’t matter. The Yankees are the prime example of this. Currently, the Yankees led the AL in postseason ERA, and are one win away from being the AL representative in the World Series. Their team ERA of 1.91 is also significantly lower than their 4.26 ERA in the Regular Season. Is this proof that baseball’s playoffs is a crap shoot? Possibly. But then again, take a look at how the Yankees are using their pitchers in the postseason.
Three pitchers are getting the lion’s share of innings pitched—C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettite. To illustrate, here’s a chart showing how much more usage these three are getting:
Percentage of Innings Pitched by Sabathia, Burnett and Pettite
Regular Season: 44.3%
Post Season: 67.5%
Percentage of Starts Made by Sabathia, Burnett and Pettite
Regular Season: 61.1%
Post Season: 100%
Add one more pitcher to the list, and the point becomes even clearer:
Percentage of innings pitched by Sabathia, Burnett, Pettite and Mariano Rivera
Regular Season: 48.8%
Post Season: 79.8%
Throw in eight inning man Phil Hughes, and you take the percentage of innings thrown by the Yankees better pitchers to just a hair below 85%. If you just take Sabathia into account, the Yankees best starter, he’s gone from pitching roughly 16% of the Yankees regular season innings to pitching 32% of their post season innings so far. That will probably drop to 28.2% Thursday night barring extra innings. But if the Yankees win, it also sets Sabathia up to increase that percentage by a hefty margin when they skip Pettite and have him start Game 1 of the World Series.
This tactic isn’t as uncommon as one would think. The 1987 Twins gave the lion’s share of innings to five pitchers –Frank Viola, Bert Blyleven, Les Straker, Juan Berenger and Jeff Reardon. The team ranked 10th in the AL in ERA during the regular season, but the pitching was fine in the Playoffs simply because it didn’t have to throw the ghost of Joe Niekro or Steve Carlton during those games.
Are the playoffs a crapshoot? Sure, to an extent. But they’re a crapshoot where loaded dice are encouraged. A solid rotation 1 through 5 is a good thing in the regular season. It’s going to be at a serious disadvantage to a better 1 through 3 in the playoffs though, for the simple reason that who your #4 and #5 starter may be is kind of irrelevant. Who your number 1 starter is far more relevant, since he’s going to get far more innings than in the playoffs than anyone else, and be counted on to win a game 7 and keep your team alive if it comes to that.
Yes, the Twins have holes in the offense. Ignoring the hole at the top of the rotation though that’s been there ever since Santana left, however, could turn out to be way more disastorous if the goal is to put together a team that can win in the postseason.
Be sure to check out our BYTO forums for more discussion and information.
Posted by jewscott on 10/21 at 10:04 AM
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Twins v. Tigers—One Game For All the Money
In the words of the immortal saint MC Hammer, we’ve got to pray just to make it today.
Be sure to check out our BYTO forums for more discussion and information.
Posted by jewscott on 10/06 at 09:23 AM
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