Minnesota Twins

On September 28th of last year, Carl Pavano tossed a five-hit shutout at Target Field, leading the Twins to a 1-0 victory over the Royals. It was the final game of the 2011 season, and its only significance was keeping the Twins from reaching 100 losses – a deflating milestone even if it's virtually no different from 99.
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Here at Twins Daily, you can read some terrific Twins content just by reading the front page. You can converse and discuss our favorite team in the Forums, and we definitely encourage you to share and express your thoughts and opinions there. However, Twins fans who come to Twins Daily should be sure to frequently go to the Blogs page because we are getting some very good, quality Twins content there as well. Check out these blogs, and if you are so inclined, take some time and start writing your own blog here. The best of the best of these blogs will be promoted to the front page.

Today is a very good example of the wide range of Twins topics that you can find in the Blogs: ...

The following story was originally published in January, in my Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook 2012. The day after the 2011 season ended, I named the SethSpeaks.net Twins Minor League Player of the Year (Brian Dozier), the Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year (Liam Hendriks) and the Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year (Andrew Albers). For my book, I was fortunate to get in contact with all three of those players and interviewed each of them for a story.

Over the weekend, it became official that Liam Hendriks had made the Twins Opening Day starter. He will make his 2012 debut on Sunday against the Orioles. I thought it would be fun, and timely, to post the Liam Hendriks article here. (If you want to read the Dozier and/or Albers article, and read over 160 player profiles of Twins minor leaguers and much more, you can order a paperback book here, or you can get an electronic version here.)

Here is the story on Hendriks:
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* The Twins made their final round of cuts yesterday, sending Brian Dozier, J.R. Towles, Casey Fien and Brian Dinkelman to Rochester. With that, the season-opening 25-man roster has come into clear focus; it will include four starters, eight relievers and – surprisingly – only two catchers.

Drew Butera and J.R. Towles appeared to be battling for the third catcher job, but both will open the campaign in Triple-A, meaning that Ron Gardenhire will have Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit as his sole catching options. There's a measure of risk here but I think it's the right choice.
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According to Joe Christensen, Ron Gardenhire detailed the plan for the Twins early-season rotation in his post game talk. The Twins will start with a four-man rotation for their first four games and and then switch to a five-man rotation for the second cycle.

The dark horse who will be added is Liam Hendriks, who will pitch the third game of the season in Baltimore following Carl Pavano and Francisco Liriano. Nick Blackburn will be scheduled to pitch for the Twins Home Opener. Next follows and off day, so ...

[Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar]

Chris Parmelee should be fine. He looked great last September in a Twins uniform, and was a bright spot during an otherwise dismal time. Of the three prospects called up -- Parmelee, Joe Benson and Liam Hendriks -- Parmelee looked the most ready for the show. After watching several Rock Cats games last year in person, I was a little surprised that Parmelee, and not Benson, looked better in his time as a Twin, but that is why I don't get paid to do anything baseball related. You can call it a small sample size, and you'd be correct, but for 21 games in a Twins uniform, Parmelee had a .355/.443/.592 slash line with 4 home runs and 18 RBIs, and most importantly, didn't looked overmatched at the plate or in the field. He also just looked comfortable playing in the majors, which some call-ups are not.
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