Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 04, 2007
Aggressive Twins

Nick of Nick and Nick's Twins Blog attended the game in Minneapolis last night and likes the way Minnesota is running the bases:

Aggressiveness on the basepaths is something that I have been preaching for the Twins. They have a lot of singles hitters, but most of those guys have great speed and can move around the bases in many different ways. This is something the Twins should take advantage of. Being aggressive on the bases can hurt you, like it did on Monday night with Justin Morneau being thrown out twice trying to advance, but it can also be a huge help, and it was probably the biggest reason the Twins won last night's game.

Posted by David Pinto at 10:32 AM | Base Running | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Watched the Twins broadcast on MLB.TV, and the colors and clarity actually seemed better and more vivid than on other games I saw. Don't know if it was the same feed MASN was using.

The Cardinals production did look bad on MLB.TV. Very dark and fuzzy and letter-boxed (weird). Fortunately, it wasn't much of a game after El Duque's two-run double, so I didn't spend much time watching it. It was kind of fun to see a pitcher get a big hit, though. I also saw the Marlins pitcher Scott Olsen get a couple hits, including a crushed double.

Still, bring on the DH. Pitchers usually hit like...something that rhymes with "hit."

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 4, 2007 11:00 AM

Oops, kinda stuck that comment in the wrong thread. As for the Twins running the bases, steals by Hunter and Tyner did pay off last night. Everybody was running because Cabrera is so slow to the plate.

I usually have the sabermetric/Earl Weaver attitude toward base stealing and other small ball strategies. But I have to admit that they paid off last night for the Twins. A little ironic that small ball won against Earl's old team.

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 4, 2007 11:12 AM

The Twins were aggressive because Cabrera and his 6'9" windup were on the mound, and the O's had a backup catcher in because of Hernandez's injury. Gardenhire himself could have stolen a base against that battery.

Posted by: wph at April 4, 2007 11:15 AM

Yep, the Twins stole five, the most for them since a 2001 game. It was the ideal setup for steals, especially because they couldn't hit Cabrera much. At one point Bremer was lamenting that Minnesota could hardly get the ball out of the infield.

Don't know about Gardenhire stealing, though he probably would have a better chance than me.

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 4, 2007 11:22 AM

One other thing. Tyner's steal, which led to the winning run, was hilarious. He wound up falling down and crawling into second. He had so much time and Castillo's throw was so bad, that he still made it pretty easy. Gave everybody a well-deserved laugh.

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 4, 2007 11:32 AM

Also, Castillo's throw was from his knees, perhaps because he saw the huge jump Tyner eventually wasted. I thought Tyner had been beached; I called Greenpeace, but they weren't interested.

Posted by: Dennis at April 4, 2007 01:00 PM

Will Carroll mentions it at Baseball Prospectus

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=307

Posted by: joe at April 4, 2007 01:33 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?