Catching Up

Hey all. I'm just going to try and get caught up with some quick thoughts today. I've been insanely busy lately, for reasons I will explain soon.

* The All-Star rosters were announced this weekend, and the Twins' representatives came as no surprise. Joe Mauer, who was voted in overwhelmingly by the fans, will serve as the AL's starting catcher. Meanwhile, Justin Morneau was selected as a backup at first base and Joe Nathan as a member of the bullpen. These three players are all having All-Star caliber years and are basically the only players on the Twins roster who are (with the possible exception of Nick Blackburn), so I've got no grudges with the All-Star selecting process as far as Twins players are concerned.

* Speaking of Blackburn, he tossed his third complete game of the season on Sunday in the Twins' finale against Detroit, and is now sitting with a phenomenal 2.94 ERA (sixth in the AL) over 116 1/3 innings of work (fifth in the AL). With his low strikeout rates and non-elite ground ball rates, Blackburn seemed like a candidate to regress this season, but he continues to confound statisticians and is soundly outperforming his 4.92 xFIP.

I'm not a diehard Sabermetric guy and I'm certainly willing to accept that there are certain things about Blackburn's game that could consistently allow him to get better results than some normally accurate statistics would predict. He has demonstrated quite clearly that when he's on he can hit his spots at will and I think he has a fantastic ability to keep hitters off balance by changing speeds and keeping the ball away from the center of the plate. He won't continue to hold opposing batters to a .192/.257/.283 line with runners in scoring position and I don't think he'll maintain a sub-3 ERA from here on out, but obviously he's been a tremendously pleasant surprise this season and certainly don't think his success is a giant mirage.

* The Twins have been quite active in the international signing arena this year, and I couldn't be more pleased. Jorge Arangure, a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine who tracks international players and signings, reported via his Twitter account the Twins have signed switch-hitting Dominican shortstop Jorge Polanco with a sizable $700K bonus, and Ben Badler of Baseball America reported that the Twins have tabbed 16-year-old German outfielder Max Kepler, who has been touted as the best prospect to come out of Europe this year. One scout (quoted in the linked article) stated definitely that Kepler is "the toolsiest kid we've ever had in Europe." Sounds like a good find.

The Twins were also reportedly one of a handful of teams in on Miguel Angel Sano, a (purportedly) 16-year-old shortstop who is widely considered the top international prospect available this season and who is likely to sign for up to $4 million. It sounds now like they've fallen out of the race -- likely in no small part because of the two signings mentioned above -- but their pursuit of him in conjunction with those two relatively big-money signings is extremely encouraging. Given their disadvantage in the domestic free agent market, I've always felt the Twins should try to be a bit more aggressive in signing top foreign talent.

* How was Joe Mauer not the unanimous winner of the catcher spot in the All-Star balloting recently conducted among ESPN's "top baseball minds"? Did Keith Law get five votes?

Seeing Stars

After what seemed to be an endless introduction to the All-Star, which included a sincerely heartfelt tribute to Giant great Willie Mays, the 2007 All-Star game began. For Twins fans, it took a few innings before any Twins took the field. The first was Justin Morneau as a defensive replacement for David Ortiz, followed by Torii Hunter replacing MVP Ichiro Suzuki in center field, and finally followed by Johan Santana getting the seventh inning.

Offensively, the two Twins didn't do very much at all. Morneau hit a ball hard right at the right fielder in his first at-bat and popped out in his last at-bat. Hunter also flied out in his first at-bat and then grounded out with a runner on second to end the ninth inning for the AL. As for defense, the most that can be said is that it wasn't a reprise of 2002 for Hunter.

However, well Morneau and Hunter did not stand out, Santana's one inning was worth remembering. With only 10 pitches, Santana quickly set down Carlos Lee, Alfonso Soriano, and Jose Reyes. Santana struck out Lee after a few fouls on a nasty changeup and then followed up by striking out Soriano on a similarly nasty changeup. Often at All-Star games, starting pitchers just rear back and throw heat like a reliever does, but in this case, Santana showed America the same skills that have made him so devastating and dominate year after year.

Of course, while Santana was great, most viewers will likely remember Suzuki's In-the-Park home run, which was the first in All-Star game history, along with Soriano's two-run blast in the ninth that made the contest a very close game, with the NL loading the bases before Aaron Roward flied out. Good news for Twins fans is that they'll get more of Santana's magic right out of the gate after a day off today.