stringer bell

What a mess. Let me first comment on Santana. There is no excuse! The sliver of good news is that he is denied more than $6M, as it should be. Regarding Pelfrey: Put up or shut up. He is healthy, well-paid, and has contributed next to nothing for the past two years. Third and last chance with the Twins. If he doesn't perform well, he will have no one to blame but himself. Personally, I like Pelfrey and wish him the best, but the leash should be really short. Thompson or Thielbar? Burger King or McDonalds. Neither is fine dining or ever will be. I have bowed to Mr. Ryan's knowledge on a many topics, but each unexplainable decision has eroded my confidence to the point that I have to wonder if the game has passed him by. He doesn't share more than he has to, nor does he have to, but this continuing series of low-upside older players is very hard to defend.

There is a possibility Shane is right when Pinto is 100%. Nuñez could go and Herrmann could stay. Herrmann has an option remaining, so he could move back and forth freely, while Nuñez does not. At this point, Nuñez is pretty redundant to Robinson/Escobar, but one injury moves Escobar into regular status and makes Nuñez a pretty important bench player. Beyond Nuñez, the next best utility infielder is.............Doug Bernier? Despite his flaws, I think Nuñez needs to stay on the roster.

Relief pitchers are seemingly toughest to project. I think there is upside in many of the guys who were cut this spring. I don't really have a problem if any of the guys who didn't make it in March get a shot in the first half of the season. I doubt Reed, Burdi et al will be ready until sometime late this summer anyway.

And of course, Vargas singles to lead off the next inning. Get 'em out of your system now, T-nuts.

Where's Halsey? The trap has been baited.

Not that it matters, but has Torii set the record for Spring Training GDPs?

Agree that Parmelee never should have been slotted in center, but he only played 11 innings there. I don't think that should be equated with the 60-some games that Santana played in center field.

I agree that taken as a group, the decisions don't figure to build enthusiasm. As you know, I totally concurred with the Hicks decision, but would have liked to have better alternatives. I thought the bullpen should have been blown up and rebuilt with young arms. Reusse's column yesterday really hit the nail on the head about the whole roster.

On Dozier's SBs--I don't know if I can look it up, but most came early in the year when he hit leadoff. He ran considerably less when hitting in front of Mauer (perhaps to give him the 2b-1b hole?) and IIRC many of his steals from the #2 spot were double steals with Santana. Just checked BBRef, and he stole 13 bases when batting leadoff, only 7 batting second in 81 games.

Stolen base numbers for Dozier will drop off this year, mostly because of where he will hit in the lineup. After watching him hit in the spring, I think the extra-base hits will slightly increase, but more doubles. 40 doubles, 12 steals, 15 homers. .267 BA. .335/444/.778 Best in the division.

I've been thinking that the Twins needed help from the left side since the offseason started. Duensing isn't ideal, but he is the best the Twins have.

How good is Turner? I think the Twins in the next five years will have a lot of offense. I wouldn't mind a defense first guy behind the plate.

I wouldn't mind Aaron Hicks doing a Glen Perkins imitation. Perk was thought to be a lost cause after being sent to the minors. He came back and became an All-Star. I have been of the opinion that Hicks had to be sent to the minors and it has come to that. Now I can hope that he figures out how to use his tools to become a standout baseball player. Many are complaining that the rebuilding Twins are using zero rookies. Remember Vargas and Santana didn't start 2014 with the club and Arcia was sent down briefly. They are now considered the first wave of what could be something very exciting. One of Rosario, Hicks or Buxton will man center field at some point this season and Miguel Sano will undoubtedly make some noise starting in Chattanooga. Pitching and young fleet outfielders will make this club much better pretty soon. I hope it is this year, but it will be soon.

They can trade Rule 5 picks. If the Twins traded Graham to anyone, that team would have to go by the Rule 5 rules. I suggested that the Twins could work out a trade with the Braves, so that they could send him to the minors.

First guess is that the team has worked out a trade for Graham.

Well, so much for a close competitive game.

They didn't have to do it for a few days, but the Twins officially added Boyer to the 40-man, assuring him of a spot on the 25-man roster. This action means that someone (Stauffer, Thielbar, Graham) won't make the squad unless someone else is disabled or traded.

Looks like they'll need a bullpen of 10 or 11.

While I don't disagree with the comments above, there are differences between last year and this. First and foremost, there is a new manager and pitching coach. Secondly, beyond Pelfrey, the young pitchers most of us are calling for are in line. I can't even remember the names of the guys who got starts, but they are all out of the way now. Will it make a difference? Time will tell.

Actually, if Hicks or Rosario push someone out, I'm guessing it will be Schafer. I would expect Robinson to get most starts vs. lefties. That would be a little more consistent than what he saw with the Cards. I don't expect miracles, but I don't expect him to be an embarrassment either.

Regarding power, you didn't mention Arcia at all. A full season of "good Oswaldo" should yield close to 30 homers. With a full season, Hunter will make double digits in homers and I expect Mauer to do the same. Plouffe should be good for at least 15 and if Sano arrives earlier than expected, he might diminish Trevor's numbers, but he'll hit a bunch of his own. Vargas will hit long balls, too. There is considerable power potential for the Twins, perhaps the most still Kirby, Herbie, Bruno and Rat. Someone will disappoint, that is part of the game. I have said for awhile that I expect the Twins to improve dramatically. I'm going with 85 wins. In order for them to do that, they need considerable improvement from their rotation. I expect Gibson to be much improved, I expect Nolasco and Hughes to regress to the mean resulting in a small improvement, but Santana is a good middle of the rotation guy and the Twins are bound to get improvement from what they got for fifth starters in 2014. I expect the bullpen to be far more fluid, with hard throwers eventually replacing most of the middle guys that will start the season. I like the amount of talent that the Twins have accrued. The reinforcements at Rochester and Chattanooga offer the potential of far better days really soon. 85 wins, it is.

We all know Shane Robinson plays all three outfield positions and that his defense is rated as good at all three. Schafer has been rated as better at the corners than center. Arcia is well below average, as is Hunter. When the Twins have both Schafer and Robinson in the game, which of them plays center? There are two ways to look at this--if Schafer is viewed as the regular center fielder, Molitor might want to keep him there 100% of the time. I expect it would improve his defensive metrics to consistently play one position. The other view would be to put the best outfielder (Robinson) in center and move Schafer to a place where he's been better (corner). Gardenhire liked to leave his regulars alone. I am not sure what Molitor will do. There is, of course, the whole question about how strict the platoon between Robinson and Schafer will be, so perhaps Schafer is a regular or perhaps not so much. Another alignment question is what happens if Nunez or Escobar start a game in the outfield in place of Hunter? Would Arcia then move back to right for the day? Nuñez has played a handful of games in right and Escobar has not played any. In the infield, the question would be what if Nuñez and Escobar are in the game together. This spring, the Twins played Nuñez at second more than they played Escobar, but I think they needed to know if he could handle second on more than an emergency basis. My thought would be is 2b-ss is vacant they would use Nuñez at short and Escobar at second, 2b-3b would put Escobar at second, Nuñez at third. SS-3b would go Escobar at short and Nuñez at third. My view is that Esobar's best position is shortstop, but he is better defensively across the board than Nuñez. I think the best defensive position for Nuñez is third base and I think he isn't as bad as many on this board claim.

With Rosario and Hicks both competing for the center field job in spring training, it was Hicks that got the bulk of the innings in center. To my knowledge, Rosario always played left when he and Hicks were both in the outfield. Will this continue in Rochester? If there is a true competition for "first man up" if (when?) Schafer struggles or is injured, I would think they would alternate between left field and center. Rosario hasn't played much center field in the past couple years, and the opportunity appears to be in center. Further, where do these guys hit in the Rochester lineup? It would seem to me that both would hit towards the top of the order.

I'm glad to see Pelfrey walked back his earlier comments. I try to take such stuff with a grain of salt. Pelfrey is going to the bullpen and likely will get a shot sometime in the first couple months. It might help Pelfrey's career if he shows he can function out of the bullpen.

My personal observation of the backup catcher competition was that Pinto was the favorite despite his early injury, however since the head injury both Fryer and Herrmann got time that might have gone to Pinto. I'm still banking on Herrmann because of his 40-man status and then the Twins will decide on who they want between Pinto, Herrmann, and Nuñez (2 of the 3).