25-Man Roster Thoughts

Posted these on Twitter earlier tonight. Figured I'd post them here also as a conversation starter.

Now that the 25-man roster appears set, here are a few things that strike me...

- Quantity rather than quality in bullpen. Gardy's going to have to establish a reliever hierarchy on the fly. Will it hurt the team early?

- Bench is stacked, esp compared to last year. Doumit, Plouffe, Revere, Hughes & Burroughs are dynamic weapons for the manager to utilize.

- Chris Parmelee is a huge wild card. Tough to say much else. I really hope the Twins are right about him.

- And finally, if Hendriks puts together a couple good starts it could create some interesting early drama in the rotation.

What strikes you?

An 8 man bullpen with 4 righties that can't get any outs? The Twins are sitting on a powder keg.

I'm glad to see the Twins taking a chance on some younger guys...rather than pursuing Tony Batista, Mike Lamb, etc.

Pitching overall, has me very nervous...hopefully Liriano/Baker can show up this year, pretty big if IMO with 1 on the DL already.

I think we have some options if Parmelee doesn't pan out. Doumit/Hughes/Mauer, maybe even Plouffe or Burroughs.

Also glad Hendriks is getting a chance....hopefully he impresses and gives us an option and optimism for next year.

Biggest concern is OF defense with Revere being a 4th OF. From listening to the games this spring...Willingham sounds a lot like Delmon...but as long as he doesn't run like Delmon, maybe we'll be OK. Delmon ran like his legs were bound at the knees.

Overall, I just don't see how we cannot be better than last year, but we have a very tough month of April and i'm afraid a poor start will carry over into May.

I'm liking Parmalee just because between him, Doumit, and Plouffe, Revere will be spending time as a 4th OF where he's best served. The pen is going to go the way of the starting rotation. If they can go deep into games on a consistent basis, then I'm really not too worried about it, but they have to be consistenly getting into the 6th/7th. They didn't do that last year, and it showed.

The only real headscratcher that I see is that I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why Burnet made the team. I think he'd have been best served by being optioned and spending some time in AAA figuring out how to get his mojo back. I don't like the idea of him figuring it out up here. Hopefully, he gets plenty of low leverage situations where the offense has gone nuts and the SP has done well, because I don't trust him in tight games.

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Originally Posted by diehardtwinsfan

I'm liking Parmalee just because between him, Doumit, and Plouffe, Revere will be spending time as a 4th OF where he's best served. The pen is going to go the way of the starting rotation. If they can go deep into games on a consistent basis, then I'm really not too worried about it, but they have to be consistenly getting into the 6th/7th. They didn't do that last year, and it showed.

The only real headscratcher that I see is that I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why Burnet made the team. I think he'd have been best served by being optioned and spending some time in AAA figuring out how to get his mojo back. I don't like the idea of him figuring it out up here. Hopefully, he gets plenty of low leverage situations where the offense has gone nuts and the SP has done well, because I don't trust him in tight games.

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Burnett made it because they are only carrying 4 starters for now and because Waldrop is hurt, otherwise he would hav been sent down. They are familiar with him and needed an extra arm and probably because he was better then anyone else for that spot...anyway doubt he sees much time in close games. As for Parmalee, he made the squad as a direct result of Justin's situation, not to say he did'nt play well last Sept and this March but if they had more confidence in Morneau at 1B then Parm starts in Rochester...let's hope it works out.

Burnett should only be around until Baker gets back. Otherwise I'm happy with the team. Bullpen has alot of new faces but I think they should do fine. I love that Parmelee and Burroughs made the team. Best bench we've had in a few years. Bring on the season!

I like that there are a lot of new faces, after a disaster of a year. They did not totally say "it was all injuries". I don't see much on the starting staff that I love, so I'd have probably rolled the die on Dozier, and not signed Carroll, but I'm ok with the decision. Burrhoghs looks like that veteran presence that Gardy loves so much, but I have low expectations for him. The OF defense looks shaky again. Sure will be nice when Benson is ready, as long as Span isn't gone in the meantime. The bullpen looks like a crapshoot, so we'll see what happens there.

Lots of question marks, but if Burroughs can approach his early career potential, Hughes and Parmalee carry their spring numbers forward, and Revere gets on base a bit more, I think our lineup will be very good, 1-13. As far as the bullpen, I agree that it's success will hinge a lot on what happens with our starters. If Hendricks can start off the season hot and prove he deserves to stay up here, and none of our other starters tank, our reliance on guys like burnett and gray will be significantly reduced, which is probably a good thing

We are putting great players on the field this year. Morneau healthy and hitting home runs is huge. Our pitching looks disastrous, might as well be flipping coins for Baker, Liriano, and the Bullpen. Sad thing is, we already know Pavano and Blackburn are going to give up many many hits with their high contact rate/ low strike out rate. :(

With that being said, there is always some surprise that arises every year.

Agree completely about Pavano and Blackburn. If a winning team consists of 25 interlocking parts, the most glaring part the Twins are missing is an Ace. Without at least one dominant starter, the Twins will forever remain unable to match up against strong competition.

I think Parmalee is the real deal. Not worried about him too much. The bullpen. The bullpen. Oh my....

Seems like a pretty versatile lineup. I like Hendriks and Parmelee and with our bench options, Parmelee shouldn't see too many LH pitchers.

Definitely think the lineup/bench looks improved over last year. But, I'm still pretty concerned about the Pitching that was really poor last year and doesn't really look too different. I guess if 2010 Liriano returns and Baker's elbow cures itself the rotation will be decent, but those are 2 big ifs. However, it sure is nice seeing some guys on the bench that you aren't afraid to see at the plate.

I agree on the bench; compare the 2011 Opening Day Roster's bench with 2012:

2011 Bench

C Drew Butera
1B Jim Thome
IF/OF Matt Tolbert
OF Jason Repko

2012 Bench
OF Ben Revere
IF Sean Burroughs
IF/OF Luke Hughes
C/IF/OF Ryan Doumit

LaVelle notes Casilla is still trying to get his knee ready. Friday for sure was the quote.

Guy just cannot stay healthy.


Lance Ray gets an opp vs David Price/Rays today. Good for him.

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Originally Posted by Nick Nelson

Posted these on Twitter earlier tonight. Figured I'd post them here also as a conversation starter.

Now that the 25-man roster appears set, here are a few things that strike me...

- Quantity rather than quality in bullpen. Gardy's going to have to establish a reliever hierarchy on the fly. Will it hurt the team early?

- And finally, if Hendriks puts together a couple good starts it could create some interesting early drama in the rotation.

What strikes you?

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Exactly what "Quality" did they not include in the bullpen this year? They basically brought north 7 of the best "ML Ready" arms they had currently. Gray sucks, but will be sent down as soon as Baker/Marquis is back.

If Hendrix produces he will be given a spot pretty quickly.

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Originally Posted by powrwrap

I think Parmalee is the real deal. Not worried about him too much. The bullpen. The bullpen. Oh my....

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I get the sentiment here... though at the moment I'm a bit optimistic about them as I woudln't be surprised if Maloney and Burton are pleasant surprises for this team. I think Duensing can go back to his former self where he gets an inning with two lefites and a righty and dominates... That said, there's something to be said for the fact that a bull pen failure is often the result of starting pitching failure. The Twins had lots of that last year, in part due to injuries, and in part due to shoddy defense pretty much everywhere, and in part due to Liriano not being able to throw strikes. I suspect the Twins pen will be much better if those 3 big issues are put to rest. You cannot reasonably expect a pen to do well when starters are not getting past the 5th nearly enough.

That's where having a nice mix of innings eaters and K guys comes into play. Liriano and Baker can get a nice amount of Ks and extend the game a bit on their own, though in some cases, they have problems finishing games due to throwing too many pitches. Pavano, Blackburn, and Marquis are much more dependent on their defenses, particularly up the middle. I'm hoping the up the middle disaster is gone now, because if it is, those 3 will do a bit better.

Offensively the bench is better, defensively it will be tough going. Gardy tends to overplay his bench, giving away 100's of at-bats every year. At least Sunday games this year won't necessarily be an automatic loss.

Carroll is 37 and never been a full-time player, least not at SS. I figure that at least 20% of the SS innings will have to be filled by someone else. Casilla didn't play there in ST and Dozer is obviously not there. Who will be the back up SS... Hughes and Plouffe?

I think it was Gardenhire, but maybe Ryan that indicated Plouffe will be the backup shortstop. Sounds like they are planning on playing him a lot as a "super utility" guy. Not sure where behind SS and RF they plan on using him though.