Friday: After a dismal series against the White Sox, the Twins had the pivilage of hosting the American League Champion Tigers. A couples weeks ago the Twins traveled to Detroit and took a three game series from the Tigers, 2-1. This time the tables were turned and the Tigers came into the Metrodome and continued the beating teams had been laying on the punch-less Twins all month. In this first game the Twins sent ace Johan Santana to the mound to face fifth starter Mike Maroth. In what seemed like a mismatch Maroth became the next mediocre pitcher to dominate an inept Twins lineup. In six and two thirds innings he allowed just one run and Santana left the sixth with a 2-1 deficit. The game may have remained winnable had the Twins suddenly unstable bullpen managed to hold the game at that score. They were not and allowed five runs over the next three innings while the Twins managed just two more on Justin Morneau's 9th homerun, a two run job in the eighth. It was too little too late and the Twins fell 7-3.
Nick and Nick's Recap
Saturday: In the second game of this Tigers series the Twins sent Sidney Ponson to face Chad Durbin. While the Tigers scored more early than late in this game against the ineffective Ponson, Glen Perkins did a solid job in relief going 4 four innings and allowing just two runs on three hits and a walk. But the Twins still gave up eight runs and managed to score just two in six innings against their latest CY Young candidate *sarcasm*, Durbin. Star reliever *more sarcasm* Aquilino Lopez then held the Twins to just three hits over the next three innings. The next morning it was announced that the Sidney Ponson experiment was coming to a end and the Twins designated him for assignment.
Nick and Nick's Recap
Sunday: With the Ponson era over, and in need of some punch for a team of slappers, the Twins called up Garrett Jones. About Jones, Seth Speaks says,
" Garrett Jones is set to join the Twins. This is the first big league promotion for the large, slugging lefty. Jones was originally drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 1999 out of his Illinois high school. He stayed in the Braves organization for three seasons, never getting out of the rookie leagues, before he was released. Soon after, the Twins signed him and sent him to the Midwest League (Low A Quad Cities). He hit just .202, but he did hit 10 homers. In 2003, he went up to Ft. Myers where he hit just .220, but he hit 18 homers, which is impressive in the Florida State League. 2004 was really his breakout year. He moved up to New Britain and he hit .311 with 33 doubles, 30 homers and 92 RBI. For good measure, he stole 10 bases. I wrote an article called Rockcats with Bats about the monster seasons that Jones, Kevin West and Luis Maza had. He has spent the last two years hitting in the middle of the Rochester lineup. He hit a combined 45 homers in those year yet hit just .238 and .245 in those seasons. So, he is not a good hitter. He strikes out way too much. However, he has a lot of power, including home run power."While Jones didn't play on Sunday it appeared that the Twins hitters got the message as they broke out in a big way with 22 hits and 9 walks on Sunday pounding everyone the Tigers sent to the mound. All told they plated 16 runs on 3 doubles, a triple and four homeruns, including two from Torii Hunter. Speaking of Torii he finished the night 3-5 with the two homeruns, a double, and seven RBI. Torii's been on a tear all year and the more he hits the more it becomes apparent that there is no way the Twins will be able to resign him. In a sad way the ideal situation is quickly becoming that the Twins fall out of contention and be able to shop Hunter on the market at the highest value of his career. In terms of the game, its a good thing the team was able to score so much as Boof Bonser had another down outing, going just five innings, allowing four runs, giving up a total of 9 baserunners on six hits and three walks. Boof hasn't been right all season and he maybe the next pitcher sent down if his struggles continue.
2 comments:
Boof hasn't been right all season and he maybe the next pitcher sent down if his struggles continue.
Bonser has a respectable 4.33 ERA and a .262 BAA to go along with over a strikeout per inning. His walk rate is over twice as high as it was last season, which is problematic, but for the most part all the rest of his numbers are on par with his more-than-satisfactory performance in 2006. He hasn't been spectacular, but he certainly hasn't looked like he doesn't belong in the big leagues. I hardly think he's on the verge of being sent down.
I agree Nick, Bonser is a ways off from being sent down, but his numbers, especially in the WHIP and walk categories portend bad things to come for our beloved Boof.
In my mind he's walking that very fine line between being a capable major league starter and a disaster that can determined by a team getting a hit with runners on, or not getting that hit. Carlos Silva also falls into this category. The simple truth is that rarely do pitchers with WHIP's of 1.7+ succeed at the ML level for very long. All those baserunners have a tendency to catch up with you in a bad way sooner or later.
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