Dear Shannon Stewart,
Batgirl hasn't given you nearly enough love. I mean, you're like a real professional baseball player. And every night, you go like 5 for 6. And other people may be all splashy with all their upper deck homeruns, and you come in and quietly get a hit every freakin' time you're at bat. You were 2 for 4 tonight, which I know is a little bit of an off night for you, but your first hit was a gorgeous double, scoring Luis Rivas and giving us the second run of the game. Plus, you look so damn good out there, and we haven't lost a single game since you came off the DL. And that, Shannon Stewart, makes you the Boyfriend of the Day.
Love,
Batgirl
Field/Readers 16, Corey/Jeb 11, Dougie/Goober 9, Sooz/Shannon 8, Joe/Batgirl 6.
Posted by Batgirl at August 4, 2004 09:34 PM
Kyle wins and the B-Sox lose 11-0 to Kansas City! Is this a great country, or what?
good pick, giving shannon the BOD award. while he doesn't have quite the flashy impact of morneau or santana, he has clearly been the straw that stirs the twins' drink since 2nd half 2003:
twins' record before stewart trade, 2003: 44-49
twins' record after stewart trade, 2004: 45-23
shannon joins the team at the absolute *nadir* of the season, as the team stumbles into the AS break 5 games behind KC, 5 games under .500, after getting their tails swept out of both texas and anaheim. shannon stewart joins the team in the kind of "band-aid" trade that a lot of us (including me) dissed as terry ryan doing nothing more than rearranging the furniture and giving away a good, young, inexpensive hitter in the process.
but with shannon, it was like instant combustion. *boom* -- the twins just *took off*.
now that's a fluke, right? i mean, shannon isn't really the difference between a .473 team and a .662 team, is he?
probably not... but look at the splits *this* year:
record when shannon plays 2004: 33-16
record when shannon doesn't play 2004: 28-29
that's .491 vs .702, folks. wow.
there's just something about shannon stewart added to the twins that makes the team explode. go figure. i know he has nothing to do with santana's resurgence after a tough start; or calling up morneau; or the bullpen getting *even better* after losing eddie and the hawk...
..but i'm beginning to be a believer in all the "shannon for MVP" hype we heard last year.
Posted by: brink at August 4, 2004 11:31 PMstacy--
yep, doug had another great game.
i stand by my prediction that doug will break out and the sox won't be able to quit playing him down the stretch. the glove will be great and so will the bat. boston's gonna love him for the rest of the season.
since the trade (all of 3 games) he's put up .545/.583/.636 -- i'd say that's getting it done.
i still think this was a good trade for the twins, by the way. nothing wrong with a win-win trade...
Posted by: brink at August 4, 2004 11:35 PMLook a bit deeper at Dougie's box score.
He was picked off. AND he was caught stealing. It looks like this happened on the same play (I don't understand how that can happen - a the vagaries of MLB scoring.) because he had two hits and was HBP once, putting him on base three times. He scored once (a nifty, evading-the-tag slide) and was LOB once (in the 9th, at third, being the tying run.) This only leaves one time on base - so to me it looks like he was picked off, then he ran. Which explains why he was stealing in the first place, since he is almost as slow as Matty Go Boom Big Country?
Poor Dougie. Not such a good game after all.
LT
Yeek! Stats!
Posted by: She-Ra, P.O.P at August 5, 2004 09:38 AMLondonTwin - I believe being picked off is scored as a caught stealing, so it was likely a standard pickoff throw that got him out. I'm not an MLB Rulebook either, but that's been my understanding off it.
Posted by: Skorch at August 5, 2004 09:45 AMWhew. All the stats are making my head swim... but atleast they're good stats. They're good, right?
Who can we start bombarding with emails to ensure that Shannon gets at the very least honorable mention come MVP talk time? Eric Neel?
Posted by: Haplo at August 5, 2004 09:55 AMBatgirl -
Can we get a Lego-vision archives going? I'm new to your site and I keep finding new Lego-vision links and articles. If they could be found all in one place, I'd really appreciate it.
Love your site - especially the Lego stuff - even if you don't like the White Sox.
Mike
Posted by: Mike at August 5, 2004 10:22 AMSkorch hit it on the head. A pickoff is scored as a pickoff for the pitcher, and a CS for the runner, regardless of whether he ran or not.
Posted by: IcePhoenix at August 5, 2004 10:46 AMDear batgirl,
Since Joe is your Boyfriend, I was wondering if you talked to him recently about his disabled list replay? Is he expecting to be activated soon? I can imagine that he isnt one to like chilling on his couch "resting up" too much.
Dear Mr. Mike,
That's a good idea. I'll work on it this weekend.
Dear Ms. Liz,
Yes, Joe is very troubled. He really just wants to get back and help the team.
Sincerely,
Batgirl
I'll bet the Twins record when Johan is in the starting rotation *and* rollin' like the Big Train is about as good as when Stewart's in the lineup, when Brad is consistently Rad, or when O Henry! has a couple knocks.
So, as Duke Ellington once said, "Just who is enjoying the shadow of whom?"
Posted by: frightwig at August 6, 2004 12:33 AM