With the announcement that future All-Star PJ Walters will be taking over Vanimal's spot in the rotation, the Twins will have to cut one player from the 40-man roster. Technically, it is two, but one is almost certain to be transferring Wood to the 60-day Disabled List. Let's see who picks the proper suspect . I'll reply to myself because I think I have the right answer.

Getting the call for Monday per Jim Mandelaro. Gibson will have to wait.

There is a game tonight and it's about to start.

I am starting this thread for people to look up the 2012 draft round by round and judge the 2012 draft in hindsight and compare players taken later in rounds and compare them to who the Twins actually took. It's rather jerkish, but that's OK.

Let me start with one of the two 2012 Purdue players who I loved last year. Now, catcher Kevin Plawecki was selected by the Mets at a spot higher than even I had imagined and the Twins pick before that was Berrios. So I have no problem there. Plawecki is dominating A ball this year with a 1.042 OPS, 19 doubles, 5 homers, and a 16/20 BB/K rate. I made a claim that Plawecki would end up being better than Zunino. That may have been wrong, but he is surely holding more than his own right now.

The real complaint comes in the 9th round of last year's draft. The Twins drafted LJ Mazilli at 280 and he didn't sign. Looking back, it was VERY predictable that he wouldn't sign at that spot in the draft. Seven picks later the Marlins selected Purdue's Nick Wittgren.

Between low-A and high-A in 2012 and 2013, Wittgren has pitched 54 and 2/3 innings. He has 74 strikeouts, an ERA of 0.99, only 9 walks, and a WHIP of 0.933. He is a dominant reliever and it is unfortunate that the Twins didn't see this while they were so reliever-crazy last year. Wittgren will be closing for the Marlins within 3 years.

I consider 88 wins a successful season. It may or may not get you a division championship depending on the year. It may or may not get you into the playoffs. It got the Twins into the playoffs in '87 and from their we all know the outcome. What percent confident are you in the following management to do their part to get the Twins to 88 wins by the end of the 2016 season?

Ryan?
Gardenhire?
Anderson?

I'd put my current confidence levels in those people at:

Ryan 50%
Gardenhire 20%
Anderson 10%

At the end of last season I would've put those confidence levels at:

Ryan 80%
Gardenhire 40%
Anderson 30%

I've lost alot of confidence over the off-season and the first six weeks of the season.

This is a joke right? Arcia, a young rookie who's impressed in his SSS is once again on the bench for the 4th game in a row.

I used 100 plate appearances as a qualifier and used OPS as the measuring stick of hitting performance. Here are the rankings in the American League of the 10 Twins with over 100 PAs:

Catcher--Mauer--2nd of 14
First Base--Morneau--11th of 18
Second Base--Dozier--13th of 15
Third Base--Plouffe--8th of 13
Shortstop--Florimon--7th of 14
Left Field--Willingham--8th of 15
Center Field--Hicks--17th of 17
Right Field--Arcia--4th of 15 and Parmelee 14th of 15
Designated Hitter--Doumit--8th of 10

With the news of Trevor Plouffe's concussion symptoms and the demotion of Vance Worley, changes are coming in bunches to the Twins' roster. When the Twins elected to promote Chris Colabello to replace Plouffe while he is injures, I began to wonder if the seven-day period that Plouffe is projected to be out would be a good time for the Twins to promote and check out what they have in Miguel Sano at this moment.

"In case you haven’t heard, Sano is currently hitting .359 with 13 HR and 36 RBI with 55 hits and 40 runs over 153 at-bats in 42 games at high Class-A. Many analysts and baseball executives would say that Sano is not ready for the majors and that certainly may be correct, but would it hurt to promote Sano to the majors for the projected seven day period that Plouffe would be on the disabled list?"

What do you think Twins Centric, is my idea crazy or am I on to something? I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Miguel Sano: Minnesota Twins Squander Chance to Reward Top Prospect

While they were winning, wasn't defense part of the Twins way?

It seems like all they care about is avoiding errors and limiting fundamental mistakes. Make a fundamental mistake and we are sure to hear about it. However, repeatedly show inept defensive skill and play every day.

It all starts last tear with the decision to commit three years to two guys that should not bring a glove to the field. It continued a year later by trading their players the best defensive skill.

The outfield range has been so inept this year, but somehow the Twins have found a way to play guys with even poorer range the last two games.

You might argue that the Twins collection of ball in play pitchers, they should seek players for their defensive skill. Not the Twins. With every roster decision the defense gets weaker.

Defensive metrics would support how awful the defense has been in the OF. Beyond the OF, Plouffe and Doumit can join them at the bottom of the league in their defensive skill. Metrics would only distract from the conversation. We don't need their poor metric numbers to know that the Twins have some of the worst defensive players in the game.

As the Twins are rebuilt and remodeled, I hope that defensive skill and range become a priority. Let's give our young pitchers the best possible chance to be successful. Let's move our defensive liabilities to anyone who will take them.

We are approaching the end of May and it seems like every starter on the staff has gotten progressively worse as the year has gone on. Worley's start today is just the icing on the cake. We've had terrible pitching the last 2 years, and now this year is more of the same.

Ryan brought in the guys he and his scouts thought were the best for the team, right? So who takes the fall? If we are to believe Ryan, he recognized there was a problem last year and upgraded in the off-season, so it' obviously not his fault. Seems like now is the time he tell's Anderson it's no longer working here and we need to go another direction. Either that or he has to admit he was wrong and should have been more aggressive about bringing in more options to start for us.

At some point, someone, somewhere, in this organization has to own responsibility for how awful the starting staff is. Who is that person, and when are we going see a real effort to fix the issue?

Does anyone have the specifics about how long before the Pohlads can sell the team and what kind of hit they take if they do as far as paying back some of what the county paid for?

I am not suggesting, hoping, wanting this to happen. I'm just looking for the specifics if anyone has it. A link perhaps.

Thanks.

So again today we start the game giving up a first inning run. I quickly checked baseball-reference and the team ERA in the first inning is 9.43 - far and away above any other inning. The next closest is the fifth inning, at 5.14. I can understand that, as you are talking about the third time through the order usually, and pitch count is now in the high double digits. But why do we suck so much in the first inning?

Is it a question of other teams putting together quality scouting reports so they can do their homework well and be waiting for what is coming? Is it a case of our starters being too predictable their first time through the lineup? Is there an issue with the pregame warmup and preparation? All of the above? Granted, this is not a good rotation, but the difference between the first time through the order (OPS 0.936) and the second time through the order (0.810) shows that something is going particularly wrong in the opening frames.

Since it's become Chris Colabello Day (well deserved) at TwinsDaily, I thought I'd pass along this story by Jon Morosi of Fox Sports about Colabello from spring training. It gives a good idea of his attitude and enthusiasm.


Twins? Chris Colabello: the happiest man in baseball - Yardbarker

Time for him to dust off his 3b glove?

The HPB alone might have limited Plouffe, but with that hard collision, I'll be surprised if they don't put him on the 7day concussion list just to be on the safe side.

Collabello hasn't played a ton of 3B, but who else could we bring up that could cover at least some IF?

I keep reading various places that Kyle Gibson will be on a 130 inning limit in 2013. I asked this on Twitter, but I'm going to ask it here too. Can anyone show me an article (or a link to an interview) with a quote from Kyle Gibson, Terry Ryan or Rob Antony that says that Kyle Gibson will be limited to 130 innings?

I'm not saying it hasn't happened. Maybe someone can find one. I've just never seen it. Yesterday, Gibson was on Reusse and Mackey and in the interview, he basically said that all he's been told by TR and Gardy was that they weren't going to baby him, for him to just pitch and work, and throughout the season they'll evaluate it.

So, I'm curious where the 130 inning limit that we keep reading comes from.

Someone, prove me wrong...