Various off day Twins (and not only) thoughts

• This is a sight for sore eyes:
  
  
  
  Also it looks like the grass will be very close to the foul line in Target Field, which might help bunting.


• Case in point on why predictive metrics have some merit: If someone on June 17 told you that "Blackburn is living on the edge by giving too many hits, walking more batters than usual and striking out fewer than usual" at the same time when mainstream Twins' media and his manager were calling him a "stopper", and his ERA was hovering in the low 3's, you'd think that this someone must be nuts. What do you think now?


• Here is an interesting article about the status of international baseball, now that the sport is not an Olympic sport from 2016 on.


• You'd think that an unassisted triple play would be a feat that some Hall of Famers, or at least All-Stars accomplished. This is not the case. All fifteen players who have turned unassisted triple plays are not stars. Also interesting is the fact that 13 of the 15 unassisted triple plays happened in the same manner: The fielder caught a line drive, touched 2nd and tagged the runner coming from 1st.


• This is something that I missed (and I suspect that a lot of other people did), but it is very remarkable: On August 23rd, The Hudson Valley Renegades (New York/Penn League, short-season A, Tampa Bay Rays affiliate) broadcast their game against the Staten Island Yankees, live on Twitter using the Twitcam technology. A sign of things to come? The Renegades' next Live Twitter game is on September 3rd at 6:50 PM against the Brooklyn Cyclones (New York Mets' NPL affiliate). I think that it will be interesting to watch.


• Toby Gardenhire suffered a broken wrist in a collision last night and he is out for the season.


• About 5 days are left for the waiver trade deadline (Aug. 31) and for the roster expansion deadline (Sept. 1). I am not sure that the Twins will make any trades. Their biggest need right not is starting pitching and I do not thing that the names available might be an upgrade. I posted earlier my opinion on September call ups. Since then, two things have changed: Boof Bonser, currently on the 60-day DL, is expected to potentially see action in September and Joe Crede, received an epidural last night to alleviate pain from his back. Unless his back responds (it did last season after an epidural when he played for the Chicago White Sox), I expect a DL-stint for Joe Crede.