Twins Fan From Afar

Is Ila Borders still available? Pitches to contact . . . .

Call me crazy, but I don't think the Twins -- unwilling to move Cuddyer at the deadline last season -- have any desire to let Morneau go. If he can stay healthy, even if it's only as DH, I would be surprised if this organization tries to move him. The other half of this story is that, even if healthy, I still don't think Morneau -- self-admittedly one concussion away from retirement and now increasingly prone to such injuries -- will fetch a haul from organizations that will find themselves on the hook for about $22 million in salary.

I'm sure it's the jump from the 1987 World Series. But I second the notion for the statue to include canned beer.

Rock Cats close out the victory, win 5-3. Hicks, 2-for-3 with a HR and a double, 2 RBIs. Now batting .308. Deibinson Romero, 2-for-4 with a double and 3 RBIs. Evan Bigley, Chris Colabello and James Beresford also with hits. No errors.

Hicks is heating up. Home run and a double thus far tonight. http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t538&t=g_box&gid=2012_04_12_nbraax_nhmaax_1

Hicks is heating up. Home run and a double thus far tonight. http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t538&t=g_box&gid=2012_04_12_nbraax_nhmaax_1

Good point. I think they were set to officially just rename it "the porch," until Mr. Hammer came town.

Good to see Mauer take a rip at the first pitch.

Span with 3 hits on the day.

Wow. Guess someone doesn't like being booed.

Can someone fill me in -- watching on Gameday, it looked like Mauer took a couple belt-high fastballs down broadway before "the pop-up." I'm reading, though, from those that are watching on TV or at the game, that they weren't even strikes.

I love the hand-written board. Very authentic and old-school. No tweeting of the lineups in New Britain! Thanks for the encouragement, too!

Carroll with a professional at-bat there.

I don't have the TV coverage, of course, so somehow it's less bad to "watch" it on MLB Gamecast.

I wasn't sure which Liriano would show up today: the 7 and 2/3 innings of 3 hit Liriano; or the 2 and 2/3 innings of 8 hit Liriano that gets his pitch count up to 50 before the second inning ends. Unfortunately, this looks to be the latter of the two. Hopefully he can get some stability here.

 [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yamyJ_LSBtg/T4bUbOz-62I/AAAAAAAAARI/IePkdnSf9Bo/s320/lineup.bmp [TD=class: tr-caption]How lineups are posted in New Britain -- on a large posterboard when you walk in the stadium. Gotta love it! [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] Yesterday morning, the Rock Cats played at 10:35 a.m., eastern time. That's right, as many of you in Minnesota were settling into your workday routine, so were the Rock Cats. These weekday early morning games are interesting. In fact, looking at the season schedule, it looks like the team will play several morning games throughout the season. I'll have to check one of these games out eventually! Going into tonight's game, the Rock Cats are 4-3, after losing yesterday to the Harrisburg Senators in the finale of their 3-game series. This was the Rock Cats' second loss in a row. They lost 8-4, but Aaron Hicks came through with another extra base hit -- a double -- and was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Although it was great that Hicks had another extra base hit (he had homered in both of the previous two games), yesterday's double was encouraging because Hicks was batting left-handed, the side of the plate where he needs to gain consistency. By my math, Hicks has 5 hits in his last 3 games. After starting out just 1-for-12, Hicks has hit in 5 of his last 11 at-bats, so that's great news. Small sample size, yes, but Hicks is showing that his promotion was deserved. In fact, after batting .083 just a few days ago, Hicks is up to respectable .261. And I can tell you from watching both the first game of the season, where Hicks was hitless and appeared nervous, and from watching Monday night when he had 2 hits, including a massive opposite field home run, that he is more relaxed at the plate. The second player I wanted to mention this morning is third baseman Deibinson Romero. He doesn't come up on prospect lists much any more. But I've attended two games, and have enjoyed watching Romero hit. He's not a typical prospect -- he'll turn 26 at the end of this season -- so I'm not sure what his future holds. From his career numbers, it's clear that Romero started off as a decent prospect, but saw his hitting stats drop once he hit High A baseball in Ft. Myers. This will be his second season in New Britain. He played 121 games there last year, batting 256/.327/.411. Already, however, he has two errors this season at third base, after having committed twenty at that position last season, so his defense may be an issue. Still, though, he's batting an even .333 with 8 hits early on, 4 of them doubles, and has 3 RBIs in the last two games. I'm not suggesting here that Romero is set to take Danny Valencia's job or anything, just that he has performed well at the plate this season, which for Romero would be a prerequisite to a promotion to Rochester. I like rooting for an underdog. Romero might see consensus #1 prospect Miguel Sano pass him by next season, and he might never play a single inning at Target Field, but perhaps this is his year to put things together? Tonight, the Rock Cats begin a 7 game road trip in New Hampshire against the Fisher Cats, AA affiliate of the Blue Jays. It's probably about a 3 hour bus ride from New Britain (just so you guys reading this stuff have an idea of the distance these players are traveling). After 4 games there, they will drive just a couple hours to play the Portland Sea Dogs, the AA affiliate of the Red Sox. Then it's back home for 7 games against those same two teams. All in all, the Rock Cats are in a stretch of 17 games in 17 days. Thankfully, their bus trips don't seem too lengthy. I'll probably hit up next Thursday night's game against New Hampshire, so you can expect game coverage from that, too.

 [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yamyJ_LSBtg/T4bUbOz-62I/AAAAAAAAARI/IePkdnSf9Bo/s320/lineup.bmp [TD=class: tr-caption]How lineups are posted in New Britain -- on a large posterboard when you walk in the stadium. Gotta love it! [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] Yesterday morning, the Rock Cats played at 10:35 a.m., eastern time. That's right, as many of you in Minnesota were settling into your workday routine, so were the Rock Cats. These weekday early morning games are interesting. In fact, looking at the season schedule, it looks like the team will play several morning games throughout the season. I'll have to check one of these games out eventually! Going into tonight's game, the Rock Cats are 4-3, after losing yesterday to the Harrisburg Senators in the finale of their 3-game series. This was the Rock Cats' second loss in a row. They lost 8-4, but Aaron Hicks came through with another extra base hit -- a double -- and was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Although it was great that Hicks had another extra base hit (he had homered in both of the previous two games), yesterday's double was encouraging because Hicks was batting left-handed, the side of the plate where he needs to gain consistency. By my math, Hicks has 5 hits in his last 3 games. After starting out just 1-for-12, Hicks has hit in 5 of his last 11 at-bats, so that's great news. Small sample size, yes, but Hicks is showing that his promotion was deserved. In fact, after batting .083 just a few days ago, Hicks is up to respectable .261. And I can tell you from watching both the first game of the season, where Hicks was hitless and appeared nervous, and from watching Monday night when he had 2 hits, including a massive opposite field home run, that he is more relaxed at the plate. The second player I wanted to mention this morning is third baseman Deibinson Romero. He doesn't come up on prospect lists much any more. But I've attended two games, and have enjoyed watching Romero hit. He's not a typical prospect -- he'll turn 26 at the end of this season -- so I'm not sure what his future holds. From his career numbers, it's clear that Romero started off as a decent prospect, but saw his hitting stats drop once he hit High A baseball in Ft. Myers. This will be his second season in New Britain. He played 121 games there last year, batting 256/.327/.411. Already, however, he has two errors this season at third base, after having committed twenty at that position last season, so his defense may be an issue. Still, though, he's batting an even .333 with 8 hits early on, 4 of them doubles, and has 3 RBIs in the last two games. I'm not suggesting here that Romero is set to take Danny Valencia's job or anything, just that he has performed well at the plate this season, which for Romero would be a prerequisite to a promotion to Rochester. I like rooting for an underdog. Romero might see consensus #1 prospect Miguel Sano pass him by next season, and he might never play a single inning at Target Field, but perhaps this is his year to put things together? Tonight, the Rock Cats begin a 7 game road trip in New Hampshire against the Fisher Cats, AA affiliate of the Blue Jays. It's probably about a 3 hour bus ride from New Britain (just so you guys reading this stuff have an idea of the distance these players are traveling). After 4 games there, they will drive just a couple hours to play the Portland Sea Dogs, the AA affiliate of the Red Sox. Then it's back home for 7 games against those same two teams. All in all, the Rock Cats are in a stretch of 17 games in 17 days. Thankfully, their bus trips don't seem too lengthy. I'll probably hit up next Thursday night's game against New Hampshire, so you can expect game coverage from that, too.

[Originally posted at Twins Fan From Afar] [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] [TD=align: center]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E4vSyn5fI_E/T4YUuZseCvI/AAAAAAAAARA/SF1qSwePFd0/s1600/scott.jpg[/TD] [TD=class: tr-caption, align: center]Will this man-child ever throw for the Twins again?[/TD] [/TABLE] There's no good news report today, as it was just announced that our best righty, Scott Baker, will miss the entire season as a result of elbow surgery. This is bad news, make no mistake. When he's on, Baker is the second best pitcher in the rotation. Before injuries sidelined him in 2011, he was having arguably an all-star season, and he's one of just a few Twins pitchers that can consistently get hitters to swing and miss. Also, he seems like a nice guy. I met him last year, and he was nothing but polite. But tonight, in a rare Twins Fan From Afar evening post, I'm going to present the silver lining on the Baker news. Here it goes: 1. The Twins won't have a tough decision to make on his 2013 option. It's for $9.5 million, and I'd be really, really surprised if they picked it up. Sure, this isn't Tommy John surgery, but with Baker's lengthy injury history, it would be a significant risk to take, for a traditionally risk-averse organization. Roughly speaking, $9.5 million is 10 percent of this team's payroll. It's the equivalent of a starting position player, or approximately half the salary of an "ace," however you define that term. In other words, there are things the Twins can do with that payroll space. 2. I'm not going to give you some line like "this gives another guy an opportunity to step up and show he belongs." If "he" belonged, he'd already be up here, because our pitching depth is not at all, well, deep. What will happen, though, is that the Twins will lose more games this season. Sure, that's no fun in 2012, but this team wasn't going to make the playoffs, anyway. If you are a sub-.500 team, the more games you lose, the better your draft position. This injury, unfortunate as it may be, probably bumped the Twins up a few slots in the 2013 draft. If moving up a few slots is the difference between drafting the next Justin Verlander -- or even the next Scott Baker -- and missing that selection, it's not insignificant. 3. This makes it more likely that Francisco Liriano stays. Not sure if that is good or bad, but it would be nice to have a veteran starter not named Carl Pavano or Jason Marquis next season. To me, it had seemed, until today, like the Twins would either attempt to keep one of Liriano or Baker, or neither -- but not both. Now, they either will attempt to sign Liriano, or let him walk. Either way, they won't have to think about paying their two most senior pitchers around $10 million each. 4. If Baker does come back to Minnesota, it will be for cheaper. Let's assume Baker does want to stay loyal to Minnesota. He can come back on a 1-year deal and try to re-establish value, and then hit free agency in 2014. What better place to build good pitching stats than Target Field? If not, perhaps Kyle Gibson will be ready to take a spot in 2013? In closing, I'm in no way suggesting that today was a good day in Twins Territory. We lost a good guy -- definitely our first or second best Twins pitcher. That's bad news, and I hope Baker recovers quickly. But if you view this news in the larger context of the 2014-2018 Twins -- who could be very good -- perhaps there is a sliver of good news hidden in there.

[Originally posted at Twins Fan From Afar] [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] [TD=align: center]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E4vSyn5fI_E/T4YUuZseCvI/AAAAAAAAARA/SF1qSwePFd0/s1600/scott.jpg[/TD] [TD=class: tr-caption, align: center]Will this man-child ever throw for the Twins again?[/TD] [/TABLE] There's no good news report today, as it was just announced that our best righty, Scott Baker, will miss the entire season as a result of elbow surgery. This is bad news, make no mistake. When he's on, Baker is the second best pitcher in the rotation. Before injuries sidelined him in 2011, he was having arguably an all-star season, and he's one of just a few Twins pitchers that can consistently get hitters to swing and miss. Also, he seems like a nice guy. I met him last year, and he was nothing but polite. But tonight, in a rare Twins Fan From Afar evening post, I'm going to present the silver lining on the Baker news. Here it goes: 1. The Twins won't have a tough decision to make on his 2013 option. It's for $9.5 million, and I'd be really, really surprised if they picked it up. Sure, this isn't Tommy John surgery, but with Baker's lengthy injury history, it would be a significant risk to take, for a traditionally risk-averse organization. Roughly speaking, $9.5 million is 10 percent of this team's payroll. It's the equivalent of a starting position player, or approximately half the salary of an "ace," however you define that term. In other words, there are things the Twins can do with that payroll space. 2. I'm not going to give you some line like "this gives another guy an opportunity to step up and show he belongs." If "he" belonged, he'd already be up here, because our pitching depth is not at all, well, deep. What will happen, though, is that the Twins will lose more games this season. Sure, that's no fun in 2012, but this team wasn't going to make the playoffs, anyway. If you are a sub-.500 team, the more games you lose, the better your draft position. This injury, unfortunate as it may be, probably bumped the Twins up a few slots in the 2013 draft. If moving up a few slots is the difference between drafting the next Justin Verlander -- or even the next Scott Baker -- and missing that selection, it's not insignificant. 3. This makes it more likely that Francisco Liriano stays. Not sure if that is good or bad, but it would be nice to have a veteran starter not named Carl Pavano or Jason Marquis next season. To me, it had seemed, until today, like the Twins would either attempt to keep one of Liriano or Baker, or neither -- but not both. Now, they either will attempt to sign Liriano, or let him walk. Either way, they won't have to think about paying their two most senior pitchers around $10 million each. 4. If Baker does come back to Minnesota, it will be for cheaper. Let's assume Baker does want to stay loyal to Minnesota. He can come back on a 1-year deal and try to re-establish value, and then hit free agency in 2014. What better place to build good pitching stats than Target Field? If not, perhaps Kyle Gibson will be ready to take a spot in 2013? In closing, I'm in no way suggesting that today was a good day in Twins Territory. We lost a good guy -- definitely our first or second best Twins pitcher. That's bad news, and I hope Baker recovers quickly. But if you view this news in the larger context of the 2014-2018 Twins -- who could be very good -- perhaps there is a sliver of good news hidden in there.

Per La Velle. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/147047085.html This doesn't sound good. I'll hope for the best, but it's tough to imagine a press conference with Terry Ryan sitting next to Baker, and Baker saying "I'm 100% ready for action!"

Per La Velle. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/147047085.html This doesn't sound good. I'll hope for the best, but it's tough to imagine a press conference with Terry Ryan sitting next to Baker, and Baker saying "I'm 100% ready for action!"

It looked like they were going to come on strong, scoring in both the 4th and 5th innings, but Harrisburg shut them down the rest of the way. Good performances by: Hicks -- 1-for-3 with a double, walk and RBI; and Romero, 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Romero, though, also committed his second error of the young season. Bobby Lanigan had a tough day out of the bullpen, giving up 4 ER in 2 innings. Oliveros and Martin didn't allow any runs, though, which was good. New Britain falls to 4 and 3, and hits the road, probably now, to head to New Hampshire for a weekend series.

Quick inning for Martin, retires the side in order on 2 fly outs and a grounder. Now it's up to NB to see if they can mount a comeback in the bottom of the 9th.

New Britain goes 1-2-3, onto the top of the 9th, where Blake Martin replaces Lester Oliveros.

After giving up a single, catcher Danny Lehmann throws out the runner. Oliveros gets out unscathed with a strikeout and fly out to retire the side.