Riverbrian

I've said this before and I think I'm right. Parm likes em Low!!!

​parm

Look at Kevin charge out of the gate

Yeah... I kinda missed.

I did my position paper on... Positions. I didn't know I had options and I took everything literal in those days.

Worship him and TD members will break their tablets.

1 out of ten at bats... Correia is Golden!

TC Bear... His costume has more padding and can better absorb blows.

I like to take a long meteor shower every morning before getting out and doing stuff.

I'm completely jealous.

Ok... I gotta ask again... The difference between Ish and Ick is? Mole on Face is an Ish... An Ick is a ???

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy. Winds blowing in from left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 60. Twins: SP, Correia Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Parmelee RF Suzuki C Kubel LF Escobar SS Hicks CF Correia P Padres: SP, Kennedy Denorfia RF Cabrera SS Smith LF Headley 3B Venable CF Gyorko 2B Alonso 1B Grandal C Kennedy P LINE UP!!! AGAINST THE WALL!!! Blind Folds here ya go... Cigarette? Don't worry... ChiTown will probably hit your foot. ChiTown here: Bri, I'm a pretty good shot. Just sayin' ... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Things to Think About: 1. San Diego -- A Beautiful City in deep southern California... It's so South that it's actually Between Peru and Panama. It has a population of 1,322,533... 95 percent of that population is made up of Military Personnel, Homeless People and Whale Trainers... The other 5 percent own grocery and clothing stores. San Diego has the 3rd best climate in North America... Right behind Boise Idaho and Columbia South Carolina. It's been awhile since Minnesota has a won major sports national championship but Minnesotans can at least sit back and say... at least we are not San Diego. The City of San Diego has never won a major sports championship and the owners try real hard to keep it that way. In a recent poll... Citizens of San Diego felt they had the best chance of winning the Stanley Cup first. 2. Petco Park -- I can't knock it... Petco is one of the most beautiful parks in all of baseball. Hitting home runs is hard to do at Petco with the outfield fences 685 feet from home plate and strong Santa Ana Winds that blow through the mountain passes and carry off small children who are not strapped down. One of the more notable features of Petco is the Western Metal Supply building in left field. They were going to demolish it to make room for the new stadium but after it was found that Don Rickles once bought scrap metal there it was saved from demolition and incorporated into the stadium plans. The employees of Western Metal Supply were originally very excited about the change in plans. That excitement turned bitter when they found out that the Padres were the team that was going to play there and were further disappointed to learn that their parking spaces were gone. 3. The Padres -- The Padres are building something... They have been building something for 30 years and they are almost done. They have a young talented infield who despite playing in the majors a very short time... They have still accomplished almost nothing. Along with these young position players... They also have a decent pitching staff who are pitching very well right now in the disabled league. 4. National League Baseball -- The Pitcher gets to bat and I love it... Because it's kinda fun when something unexpected happens. Kevin Correia has spent most of his career in the National League and has stepped to the plate 338 times. He has 32 hits and 5 extra base hits (all doubles) and he has struck out 121 times. No need to worry... Kevin Correia is very experienced at the plate. He knows how to walk back to the dugout and has done it a few times. 5. Moles -- A friend of mine has a mole on his face but he decided to get rid of it today. It was a sensible decision because he was picking at it and it bit him.

Well done... As always!!!

The Twins have made statements about improving the clubhouse during the off season and based on those statements I do believe it was a priority. I think it's possible that the whole Bartlett thing was a failed attempt at improving the clubhouse. It's the only think I can think of. If that is the case... I kinda forgive them because I do believe in attitude curing a lot of metric challenges. If they need a kick in the pants and the guy doing the kicking is hitting .200... So be it.

UZR from year to year is a ping pong ball. Yet... UZR is the most quoted defensive stat. You don't see people using 3 year samples. They use less than a year of data and try to pass it off as gospel... I don't belong to that church. UZR stats for 2014 are telling me that Trevor Plouffe (2.1) has more range than Brett Lawrie (-0.1) Carlos Gomez went from 4.8 to 24.4 to -0.4... From 2012 to 2014. Defensive Metrics will mean a lot more to me when they stabilize. They don't mean much until they do.

Last year around this time... Revere was struggling and then he stopped struggling. In 2012... If I remember right... Revere started off hot as a pistol and everyone was so surprised and then he cooled off and everyone went... See told you so... and then he picked it up again. 1,542 PA's and he still hasn't increased his walk totals... I admit that concerns me but he still puts the ball in play at a high rate and he still can run better than 98 percent of all players and his defense is extroidanary. If UZR says different... I believe its wrong. And UZR is a component of WAR.

What was it in 2012 and what was it in 2011? How did his Ultimate Zone Rating differ between his time in CF LF or RF? Defensive stats are half cooked. I'm sorry... I don't belong to that church.

He has me fooled... If the Phillies want to trade him back... I'll take him.

His arm is great... I remember a throw he made at Yankee Stadium last year. Deep center to third on the fly. I saw it so I know he has it. I just haven't seen it in full glory. He racked up a lot of OF assists last year in a short time frame but there was only one or two that stood out. Most of them were... Why is he running type outs?

Hicks has tools... He hasn't learned to use them yet. He could be an amazing RF in the future. I'm willing to be patient with him but he isn't performing at an MLB level in any part of his game right now. He isn't hitting... He isn't stealing bases... He isn't gunning out runners and he isn't catching balls that he shouldn't catch and he is missing catches that he should make.

I agree that Parm makes the most of his abilities and I do give him a bunch of points for that. As for "much worse than Hicks"... I disagree. The first issue is with the word "Much"... That word was way too much!!! Hicks has shown me nothing to make me say he's "much" better than anyone defensively. I read about his 96MPH arm but I haven't seen it. He doesn't seem to have the instincts to use it. He has range but he doesn't consistently track the difficult ball. As for simply better instead of "much"... Hicks better be better... He's our CF. Every team needs a CF who can cover ground. Our Guy is Hicks and compared to what the majority of the rest of the league is playing in CF. Hicks is below average right now. As for Parm... His range is fine for a corner.... He catches everything he gets to and the stuff he can't get to... Very Few in the corners can. Parm also has a pretty decent arm and despite being less than (supposedly) Hicks's arm. Parm has managed to clip some base runners with it. Parm also plays the wall in RF better than anybody. Parm is not a concern defensively. Parm remains a concern with the high fastball.

I typically over value defense. I watch for it and I appreciate it. I am not even close to satisfied with the level of defense played in the Twins OF. I will give two current players a passing grade... Parmelee and Fuld. The rest of the OF is below average in my opinion and in that group.. I include Hicks. Hicks has the tools to get better and be super... but we will have to wait for that. He's not better yet and if he gets there is still a question mark. I couldn't read the article because I'm cheap. But... If the conclusion is that the Twins are built wrong because of the combination of a lack of OF talent defensively and the lack of strikeout pitchers on the 2014 Roster. It's low hanging fruit and absolutely right... but... It's also wrong at the same time because the Twins should be built for today and tomorrow and remnants of yesterday are always going to play a role. I think the construction of a baseball team comes at a GM with many layers.

I'd be OK with Vargas... He's older than Arcia. But I knew it wouldn't be. Looking at the 40 man... It was Herrmann all the way.