Dantes929

"In perhaps their most logical transaction of the year the Twins DFA Kenny Wilson, purchase Parms contract and activate Hicks." Where did you see that? Florimon and Hermann going down is definitely a contender. I have never wanted posters on here or maybe more to the point the Strib pages running this organization by consensus but this year has been a bit of a challenge to keeping that philosophical position.

" Maybe if the Twins sign the best SP and SS to ever play baseball they'd be a wild card contender." I can see it. Take Babe Ruth's 2.28 ERA to replace Correia and you have dropped another .5 run from the rotation average while also adding an everyday at bat maybe in center field since that is where the Red Sox played him and he was probably pretty fast. Maybe those old films aren't sped up but are real time. I'll take Alex Rodriquez in his 1996 year. Dozier, Mauer, Arod, Ruth, Plouffe, Willingham, Colabello, Pinto, and Arcia. That might contend for a wild spot. More likely we have to wait for Meyer, May, Darnell, Buxton, Sano and Rosario.

Polanco now batting .307. Did he get bored after mastering this level or did he not master this level?

"This was really a team effort tonight as the Miracle spread their eight hits around to seven different batters, and four different players scored runs" This is tough to do when your team scores 3 runs.

I am patient and the last two years I have been ok with the Twins but now they have lost some of my trust. Some point out that we could still have Span but would you trade him for Meyer? I wouldn't. Rebuilding takes time and injuries happen but bringing up infielders when you need outfielders makes no sense and yes, Parmalee is a perfectly acceptable replacement in that situation. Losing Hicks, Arcia, Willingham and Fuld in such a short time is something no one can or should prepare for. If we had lost Puckett, Mack, Gladden and Bush all at once there would have probably been a similar vacuum. That's just for example. Take your pick of outfields and you would get the same results. It didn't bother me at all that they gave Kubel, Bartlett and Guerrier their shot. There should have been and should be no downside to it. If they earn their way onto the roster then more power to them. Where I have lost trust is that no one of them did earn their way. As a result, when they make these kind of moves in the future, moves that should be easily defendable, I am joining the skeptics and seeing them for more than face value.

" 0 runs allowed in 10 innings with only 6 hits allowed and 13K's between them is okay for that billing on those guys for me" I wasn't knocking them but don't really consider 12 base runners in 10 innings to be dominant. Effectively erratic or maybe erratically effective would have been the best descriptions because yes, to their credit, they didn't let any score..

He was the 5 innings, 5 outs and 2 walks I was referring to. Nice outing but not how I describe lights out or dominating.

I am ok with that. I just like the idea of giving Darnell a shot but also I actually equate Deduno with Guerrier at his best. Reliever that can give you more than one inning at a time and spot start if needed. Just made sense to me because Darnell was AAA pitcher of the month as a starter with starter innings. No argument with your statement except for those reasons. I have supported Guerrier in his prior stint with the Twins even when others were down on him but I just don't like promoting him at this time. The opt out just doesn't seem that significant to me.

"Matt Guerrier has been a very solid big league contributor for 10 years. Let's think about the track record instead of his most recent outing in Rochester." If it was 10 solid years followed by a bad recent outing I would agree. It is 10 solid years being generous calling last year 4.01 NL relief solid, surgery and rehab, two bad outings at AA 35 years old, and promoting him just because of an opt out clause he probably wouldn't have taken. I really liked Guerrier but give him more money to stay, let him earn his way back or let him walk.

" Darnell should be starting for the Twins instead of Deduno while Pelfrey is out" This. "The Twins have done a terrible job at managing their 25-and 40-man rosters this season. A little of this is injury-based, to be sure...but a lot of it is self-inflicted, starting with the Bartlett debacle" This. " I don't think the issue is Guerrier's past accomplishments or what he still has left in the tank. The issue is does he bring any real value added to this team now or in the future? I think the answer is no. The bullpen has been solid and they shouldn't waste a roster move on an aging relief pitcher when they are in desperate need of a bench. This is a no-brainer move.....they should have let Guerrier walk...." This. and ""Hey...you're wasting a roster spot on a third catcher. How do we know you're wasting that roster spot? You haven't played him at catcher." This. I have never used the "This" comment, used bold, or questioned the Twins moves this much. I just don't get it. Florimon down but don't understand why the push from posters for Nunez. Escobar has done just fine and should be given the chance and if he fails give it to Santana and if he fails give it to Nunez. Escobar has earned it and Santana is most likely to be part of the future. If all fails maybe Florimon will have earned his way back by then.

Was expecting more and better from reading the headline. May getting beat up a bit, Berrios wildly effective and 5 innings with 5 hits and two walks did not live up to the dominating billing.

Its true and it is a good analysis. Personally I don't care if Gibson strikes out another guy all year if he keeps his ERA at 3.5. I don't care if Nolasco strikes out 20 guys per 9 innings if his ERA stays at 5.82.

I must be a contrarian because I wasn't pulling at the bit to get Meyer into the Twins rotation after his two dominant starts but now that he has a bit of a clunker I don't consider that to mean all that much either. I assume that Meyer's two great starts he had enough stuff and control to make them great starts in the majors as well. The idea that he needs to be consistent is somewhat valid but hardly the be all end all. If you told me he will have 2 dominant starts for every 3 games for the rest of his career I would say get him up now and enjoy it especially if you can have off days and still have a fair chance of winning. Pitchers have off days and that will probably not change no matter how much preparation he has in the minors. To illustrate, the names of the guys who had quality starts last year at a rate of approximately 2 out of every three games includes, Verlander, Fister, Felix Hernandex, Darvish, Cain, Lohse, and Lester. Top couple guys were at 80% but it dropped to 67% pretty quickly and there were a lot of past Cy Young types who were sitting around the 50% rate including Sabbathia, JIminez, Peavy, Harren and Lincecum. To illustrate further we are all kind of excited that Hughes had 3 quality starts in a row so that is obviously the exception around here.

No proof there. How many Cy Young votes do most weak #1's or strong #2's get? That is hardly an indication that he does not qualify and neither do strikeouts. He was 14th in the American League in ERA with at least 160 innings right behind Jamie Shields and since there were only 14 teams maybe you can do the math to figure out why I said weak #1. He had an ERA of 3.54 which was better than Scherzer, Wilson, Darvish, Lester and Santana. If you do the math a weak # 4 would be the 64th best. As far as I can see there were only 39 pitchers that qualified and the 39th had a 5.77 ERA.

No expert but I imagine change in velocity can come from length of stride, cock of wrist, angle of arm, turn of shoulder and probably a dozen other things. I have mentioned it before but mechanics can cause my golf shots to vary greatly in length and when I am in the groove it is effortless, longer and more in control. Pelfrey appears to be on the flip side of that. I am guessing mechanical. I also think he should work it out in the minors. I like Pelfrey but it is gut check time.

While I agree with that also and am not excited by Diamond's performance its not like he has a ceiling of AAA filler. His ceiling was weak #1 or very strong #2 because that is how he performed for an entire season. He may not reach that ceiling again and his position may be behind several guys in the depth charts and deservedly so but if he pitches his way up the ladder again, more power to him.

What happened on that play? Just curious. It looks horrible but could actually have been a throw from a lower angle and headed for his glove. Could be a pop fly that is headed for his crotch. How about a little context? Funny picture either way. I never criticized getting Nishi especially when it happened. No reason his Japan numbers couldn't have translated better. Getting him wasn't the problem I had but getting rid of Hardy was. Unproven Casilla, Nishi and Valencia made for a very unstable possibility for the infield which proved to be the case.

" A good logical move by the Twins, but likely could be useless after tonight if we get another short start from the SP staff " If we get another short start and Darnell eats a lot of innings why would that be useless? I am thinking it might and should be Pelfrey sent down and if Darnell isn't needed before then he will get the start Tuesday. If Pelfrey cannot regain his velocity and control then putting him in the bullpen doesn't solve anything. Sending him down to find it makes all the sense in the world.

"I think the optimal number is 15 pitchers and 4 catchers. The Twins are on the cutting edge here, the rest of the league will be following suit. It is a copycat league. " You know if a team actually did that and won the World Series there would definitely be teams that would copy them. Its how we got the whole pitch to one batter, closers can only throw 1 inning in save situations stuff in the first place.

"Santana is the logical choice. But do we really want to trust the position to a rookie now that we're close to contending? " Are we that close? Happy if we are but a game over .500 over an eight of a season isn't really that convincing. For shortstop I had suggested a trade with Sano back when he was a top 5 prospect and there were 2 or 3 shortstops in the top 6. I would have been happier with a great major league ready upside elite shortstop and take my chances with Plouffe or other at 3rd than Sano at 3rd and Florimon at short. That is out the window and unfortunately Rosario would be selling low at this point and I think Buxton would require more than a top 6 shortstop in trade. Stewart for a closer to ready good upside shortstop prospect?

Dozier to shortstop and Santana or Polanco to 2nd base. Problem solved.

I was ok with getting Nishi at the time and most people probably were. I was against moving Hardy at the time mainly because we were going into that season with question marks above Casilla, Nishi and Valencia. We needed more stability than that. Hardy had a bad year with the Brewers and blamed them and praised the Twins for his resurgence. Then he goes to the Orioles and does even better and blames the Twins for that difference as well. That's the part I didn't like about him. He may not be interested in the Twins but they did help resurrect his career.

jokin, I am not anti Meyer by any means and agree that ERA is relevant but not conclusive especially in the short term. It still is the stat I look at first and can't help but notice that there are 3 starters at Rochester that had a lower ERA before yesterday. I didn't think he was due to pitch yesterday so afraid I was not up to date. Doesn't change much. 6-10 starts is reasonable to judge performance both for Meyer and the guys in the rotation with the Twins. Few agree with me but I thought Pelfrey pitched well his last time out and gave up some cheap runs. He had good movement and kept the ball low. If he gets rocked his next time and Meyer has another great start I probably have a different view.

"Pelfrey, second half of 2013, had roughly a 92 ERA+ and averaged less than 5.5 IP per start. Better than his first half, but not sure if I'd call that "quite good". Certainly shouldn't guarantee him much slack in 2014.' Take a way a bad September which could reasonably be attributed to fatigue after a year off and you have 3 months and 14 starts which saw his ERA go from 6.66 to 4.86 and include 8 quality starts. I would say that was good. If you look at his career by months you will see Pelfrey typically has bad starts and gets better as it warms up. I thought it was reasonable that he would be better this year and still think that though the thought did occur to me that he should start in the minors or bullpen and then enter the rotation in the warmer months. No one ever expected him to quite good but expecting him to be ok or pretty good was and is reasonable.

"Amen, SD. I bet that you'll get the "gotta worry about the long term, like next year or after" response though" Mocking it doesn't discredit it. I want the Twins to think mid term and long term just as I would wish our government to do because I hope to still be here in the mid and long term. I contend that Smith was more the GM that the fans wanted. " Fans want to win now so lets fill our short term need for a corner outfielder and get Young for a fairly rare talent in Garza". " Fans want to sacrifice prospects to give us a better shot at winning now so lets see if Capps can get us over the hump and give up Ramos", "Fans are tired of just winning divisions and want us to do something different so lets get this Japanese guy" Ok, my contention is that Smith was more the fans type of GM but admit he did a poor job of it. Ryan is more of a long term guy which is why we are having the Meyer discussion in the first place. I have seen tons of comments that bemoan the fact that we have had to play Hicks when we could have had Span playing for the last year instead. If Meyer is who we want him to be I know no one is going to say "Yeah, Meyer is a Cy Young now but we could have had Span instead of Hicks in center back in 2012." but I wonder if anyone will give the Twins credit for thinking longer term. Sorry for the Snark but its not so ridiculous to wait longer than one month to judge performances. Also, Meyer's ERA in the minors is still worse than Blackburn's, Hendrik's and Slowey's was. How will 3.48 ERA in the minors translate to the big leagues? Two more weeks working in games that matter but matter less to work on the changeup isn't going to hurt anyone.