Justin’s comment about welcoming Joe¹ to the 4 strikeout club was probably my favorite.

Joe Mauer, who after missing the first month of a season due to injury, is on pace to have his best year ever.  In fact he’s already hit more home runs than any he’s hit in any other season.  And now he’s in the Home Run Derby for the first time representing the Minnesota Twins.

He may not win, but I’ll certainly be watching to see.  Time to hit some long balls Joe.  Show some Mauer Pauer at Busch Stadium.

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Tonight marks the Twins first game of the 2009 Season.  They will be hosting the Seattle Mariners at the Metrodome with the first pitch of their 2009 season scheduled for 8:10 EST.

Baseball is reborn again.  I don’t have too much to say on the subject as nearly everything I thought about saying has already been said.  Looking for somewhere to hang out and talk about the game tonight?  I suggest the WGOM‘s game log.  Stickandballguy is handling the opening day log and different WGOM citizens will be writing the logs each night.  I’m moving from the couple of Tuesday game logs I did last year, to doing the Sunday logs all season.  Get ready for a lot of tRA and name-calling on Sundays.

If you want a more substantive post about the game look here:

• Minnesota Twins Most Valuable Blogger’s Opening Day Piece
• Howard of the Strib’s Piece: I agree Howard, Opening Day should be a a National Holiday.  I was going to write about that today, but the Pro beat me to the punch.
• WGOM Game Log [Opens at 7:10 EST]
• This just in from Joe C: “The Twins are wearing their 1982 throwback uniforms tonight. Red hats, the whole works.”

So there you go.  Everyone else is doing their “oh my, thank god Baseball is back” posts today.  Instead of being one of many, I’ll try to post something on that subject [the draft is already done but I didn't post it this morning] later this week.  Or maybe next week.  We’ll see.

Its opening day.  Go Twins!

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Spring training really begins for the Twins tonight with their first actual game against their cross town rivals [at least in Ft. Meyers, Florida] the Boston Red Sox.   There isn’t any sound like a bat hitting a ball which I associate more closely with summer.  Suffice it to say: I am extremely excited that baseball is back.  Its really quite an irrational feeling, but I refuse to do anything to temper it.

I can only imagine what it must feel like to be a young player at Training Camp, working on your skills alongside of some of the greatest baseball players in the world.  Many of these rookies are actually learning from their childhood idols and heroes.  How cool would that be?  So for the next couple of weeks we have a mini baseball season consisting of 35 games.  Its always exciting to see who makes the team by playing well enough to impress the coaches in those games.  Baseball’s back.

The only downside, is that Boof Bonser, one of my favorite Twins pitcher, underwent surgery this morning, and the found injuries they never dreamed would have been there.  So it looks like Boof will be out for the majority of the 2009 season if not more.  At least he has one of the coolest names around; I wish all the best to Boof, and hope for a speedy recovery.

The game is at 7:05 pm EST on both MLB Network and MLB.tv.

The Red Sox will be starting: 1. Ellsbury, CF. 2. MVP, 2B. 3. Youkilis, 3B. 4. Jason Bay, LF. 5. Wilkerson, RF. 6. Lowrie, SS. 7. Bailey, DH. . 8. Bard, C. 9. Gil Velazquez, 5. Pitching: Wakefield. [Source]

The Twins have said that Carlos Gomez will not play while Justin Morneau, Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla, Brian Buscher, Mike Redmond, Wilson Ramos, and Chris Butera will see time in the field for the Twins.  Glen Perkins, Joe Nathan, Jesse Crain and Bobby Keppel are on the list to pitch. [Source]

Enjoy the game!

That’s right. Even thought the Twins signed Joe Crede to a one year deal today I’m sticking to my guns. I’ll be rocking a Delmon Young jersey all season, so long as he remains a Minnesota Twin. Why? Everyone else is wearing Mauer, Morneau, Nathan, Gomez, etc. I’m pretty sure I’ll be the only person in Washington DC walking around in a MN Delmon Young jersey.

I’m not even sure they’ll be wearing these around the Twin Cities these days.  Good times.

After yesterday’s game I’m sure some fans are wondering what the weather will be like in Chicago for tonight’s game. So here’s whats expected:

Image from accuweather . com

Game Time: 7:30 EST on TBS.

Probable Pitchers:

Twins: Nick Blackburn whose tRA+ is 98 and xFIP is 4.55.  Blackburn has had a pretty good year for the Twins regardless of his numbers compare to other pitchers.  Most Twins fans wish that Scott Baker was scheduled to pitch this game, but suffice it to say: I’m glad Glen Perkins or even worse Livian Hernandez is not pitching in this game.  Blackburn was effective in his start against the White Sox last week: heres hoping he can repeate that performance tonight.

White Sux: John Danks whose tRA+ is 124 and xFIP is 3.94. Dank’s career ERA is 6.88 versus the Minnesota Twins.  This largely due to the fact that the 3-4-5 hitters in the Minnesota batting order have destroyed him. Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel are a combined 18-for-35 (.514 average) with 7 extra-base hits against Danks over the past 2 seasons. Again hopefully this trend continues tonight.

The Twins are now in first place. The Twins are now first place. The Twins are now first place.

I’m not sure I’m going to be able to sleep.

Hell Yes! Alexi, I’m glad I met you at Spring Training.  Tonight you are the Hero.

Wow!  That’s all I’ve got right now!

Go Twins! I hope K-Slow is alright! We’re going to need him.

The big series starts tonight. Go Twins!

Probable Pitchers

Scott Baker for the Twins versus Javier Vazquez for the White Sox.

Both teams need to win this series, so it should be an interesting showdown.

Go Twins!

Update: I made a mistake. The game won’t be on MLB TV. Damn. Guess we’ll have to wait for Friday’s game against the Boston Red Sox to watch the Twins on video. Either way, I’ll listen to the Game day Audio later and summarize what I hear…

The Twins first Spring Training game of the season starts in just a few minutes. I won’t be able to watch the game live (I have to work) but plan on watching the game on MLB TV later tonight. I’ll post an update after I watch the game. I can’t wait. Baseball season is finally here!

Here are the notable players in the line up for each team:

• Cincinnati Reds
  • Brandon Phillips
  • Edwin Encarnacion
  • Jay Bruce
  • Matt Belisle
  • Ryan Freel
• Minnesota Twins
  • Carlos Gomez
  • Brendan Harris
  • Joe Mauer
  • Michael Cuddyer
  • Jason Kubel
  • Mike Lamb
  • Scott Baker, Starting
  • Other Pitchers: Glen Perkins, Pat Neshek