Baseball 2010: Green grass, red clay, and another world championship

[G. Hoffman]

From Elias: Brian Duensing allowed only one run in eight innings to pick up the win in his start against the Royals at Target Field. Duensing has made nine home starts in his two seasons in the major leagues and posted a 6-0 record with a microscopic 0.70 ERA in those nine games.

How the fuck did this guy start the year in our bull pen? I mean, he was fantastic there, sure, but he's also one of our most reliable starters, and mostly works so damn efficiently that he goes long too. He got through eight innings tonight on 105 pitches, had four 1-2-3 innings, none of which took more than 12 pitches, and never faced more than 5 batters in an inning. Not to mention only allowing one run in that nine. I'm going to assume that he won't have to fight for his spot in the rotation next year.

I feel the need to admit, though, that I was completely wrong last year about the new park. I was quite concerned about the loss of the roof, which had been one of the really great home team advantages in baseball, but it turns out, when you have a park that sells out every night (71 sell outs in a row), you can afford some extra talent. We are perilously close to tipping the $100 million mark, which I'm not wild about, but given that almost 10 of that is going to Joe Nathan, who is out for the year, I guess it is OK to be a bit high this year. I am a bit worried about next year, because if Thome comes back he will not be nearly so cheap as this year, and I would LOVE to see him come back next year!

It is quite interesting the difference, though, how much more profitable and effective a smaller room can be. For Baseball, the Metro-breast held about 55,000, where Target field can just barely squeeze in 40,000. But supply and demand mean they can get make more off the 40,000 than they ever could at the dome. I do miss being able to go to almost any game on a whim at the dome, but this new place is so much nicer that I think I'll get over it. Particularly if they can get past the ALDS this year!!!!

I'm going to be curious to see if they make any changes this year, though. They really thought Target Field was going to be a home run hitters park, and of course it isn't even close. It is one of the hardest parks in baseball for dingers - unless your name is Thome, of course, who has 18 of his 22 at Target Field - and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they felt the need to enlarge the bullpen and add about 1,000 seats in the outfield this winter, just to bring those walls in 10-15 feet! It is pretty glorious, though, to have a real cathedral to the game again.


Gabriel