stringer bell

Check Hisle's record. He was a fine player OPS+ for the Twins of 127 in 2764 PAs and one fine season with the Brewers (OPS+ of 153). At some point, he couldn't throw any more, but he could rake.

The Twins need to acquire pitching from all available avenues. As many have pointed out, they can't close the door on signing free agents. I think the Twins need to explore acquiring high quality arms via trade as the Tigers have done. They wouldn't be trendy picks for the World Series without Sanchez, Fister, and Scherzer. Of course, it would help if they hit big in the draft and also score a major piece via free agency such as Guthrie, Sanchez and Iwakuma.

Burnett now is with the Cubs. He's been all over the place--Toronto, Baltimore, Minnesota, and Chicago.

One of the players on your Top Ten Brewer/Twin list should be Larry Hisle. A couple of great years with the Twins and one stellar season with the Brew Crew.

Just a couple thoughts: Parmelee seems to be getting incrementally better. He's still got a long way to go. Florimon is having a nice first full season so far. Correia will probably limp through the season and win ten games, but the bloom is off the rose. Please Gardy, don't play Doumit in the outfield. The Twins played three very good teams during their losing streak. The Brewers are their speed. BTW, except for the Gomez and Segura who are those guys? They did have four ex-All Stars on the bench--Lucroy, Braun, Weeks and Ramirez.

a maple leaf thong.

Rips up AA for a few weeks, promoted to AAA in June and then called up to the Rangers. Stars in their run for the Western Division championship.

Bottom of the 7th. Really important to get through this one with so that the top doesn't face hitters with runners on.

Both are healthy and Joe Mauer has twice as many homers as Justin Morneau on May 28.

Hey, that little bit of trivia has won me several drinks, a nice dinner and ten bucks.

Back to back. Can Correia get through six?

IIRC, Liriano was facing some of the dregs of MLB. He got the Tigers at Comerica and wasn't dominating.

Smalley saying that pitching has improved of late. I think he's right. Most teams, except the Twins seem to have at least a couple decent starters, a good eighth inning guy and a closer. The Twins haven't kept up with the "arms race", as demonstrated by their rotation.

Ryan Doumit, right fielder. Still doesn't work for me.

I'm guessing Gardy didn't want to have the bottom of the order be Dozier, Hicks, Florimon, and Correia. BTW, is anyone out there?

Carlos Gomez with a second deck homer, who would have predicted that?

Florimon with another RBI hit. While there have been a lot of disappointments on this club, Pedro has had a nice two months.

Vanimal having a great outing against the IronPigs. 2 hits in 6 innings. Edit: Vanimal finished with a 5 hit shutout. 4 BB, 4 K.

Apparently coaching hitting isn't as easy as throwing BP. Bruno and Gardy want Dozier to hit the ball more to the opposite field, while Gladden was advocating that Dozier should look to pull the ball more and perhaps put one in the seats. IIRC, Dozier's slide started after he homered at Fenway. Just a coincidence?

How can someone not like that. Thanks for your service, Chief!

After a period of stability, the Twins have made a rash of moves. Many of the moves have been panned by the denizens of Twins Daily for being shortsighted, cheap, stupid or all of the above. Some are calling out the GM for saying the team was trying to compete when, in fact, they are rebuilding and focusing on next year or the year after. News flash! The team isn't going to contend this year. Ryan's "contention" talk was predicated on miraculous performances by pitchers who have been much less than miraculous. The hitters have been, on balance, disappointing and a couple teams in the AL Central are pretty good. No chance in 2013. Certainly, Ryan knew this could happen and the next step for Project 2013 is to prepare a nucleus for next year and 2015 and find out what he needs to acquire to make future teams viable in the division. There are a large number of question marks and several categories of players to be evaluated. Here's my take of the categories and the players in the categories for which Ryan must make decisions: Veterans--Morneau, Doumit, Willingham, Carroll, Perkins and Burton. These are established players with established roles and Ryan must decide whether hold on to them or trade them. Not established non-rookies--Hendriks, Robertson (both demoted early), Plouffe, Florimon, Dozier, and Parmelee. Several position players were new starters this April, none of them had started all year in 2012. This is a group that the Twins have to determine whether they should be starters going forward and if the Twins need to check out the minors of other teams. So far, the results have been mixed, at best. Dozier and Parmelee have been disappointments, Plouffe held his own until his injury and Florimon has exceeded very modest expectations. The two pitchers I mentioned didn't make it through April. Fringe guys--Hernandez, Walters, Deduno, Colabello, and Thielbar--These guys mostly are placeholders who get a chance to stay in the majors. None of them project to be long term Twins or stars, but they will get a chance to keep in the majors if they do their jobs. If any of these guys have to be demoted or ride the bench for a long period, so be it. If any of them can be a productive player in the coming years, it will be a bonus. Rookie Prospects--First of all, these are guys who the Twins are banking on to help them be a good team again. The team will do everything they can to help these guys become producers in the coming years. The players include Arcia, Hicks, and Gibson. The Twins approach seems to be different for each guy--they've stuck with Hicks despite his major struggles, they've sent Arcia down three times and much to many contributors' frustrations they have refused to promote Kyle Gibson despite the worst starting rotation in the major leagues. In discussing transactions, playing time, trades, or demotions, it is important to remember that everybody doesn't get treated the same, nor should they. Goal one is to do what is right to help the prospects succeed. We can argue with the plan, but we, the fan base, must support the idea of developing talented, young, and inexpensive players. For me, I would have sent Hicks down to secure his services for another year and build his confidence at Rochester. Gibson, IMHO, should have been promoted at least a week ago and I basically agree with the treatment of Arcia, although it hasn't been smooth for him. The unproven non-rookies need a longer leash than barely a quarter of the season. Since this is a non-competing year, the Twins need to find out about them. I think somewhere around midseason is a fair evaluation period. Some of the veterans need to be traded, some should stay as veteran preference for the improved teams fueled by a (now) top-notch farm system. The key component for the near future for the Twins is their starting staff. They need to develop/acquire enough talent to compete with the deep rotations in Detroit, Cleveland and several other AL cities. Let's see if Ryan's moves work out, particularly with the starting staff.

After a period of stability, the Twins have made a rash of moves. Many of the moves have been panned by the denizens of Twins Daily for being shortsighted, cheap, stupid or all of the above. Some are calling out the GM for saying the team was trying to compete when, in fact, they are rebuilding and focusing on next year or the year after. News flash! The team isn't going to contend this year. Ryan's "contention" talk was predicated on miraculous performances by pitchers who have been much less than miraculous. The hitters have been, on balance, disappointing and a couple teams in the AL Central are pretty good. No chance in 2013. Certainly, Ryan knew this could happen and the next step for Project 2013 is to prepare a nucleus for next year and 2015 and find out what he needs to acquire to make future teams viable in the division. There are a large number of question marks and several categories of players to be evaluated. Here's my take of the categories and the players in the categories for which Ryan must make decisions: Veterans--Morneau, Doumit, Willingham, Carroll, Perkins and Burton. These are established players with established roles and Ryan must decide whether hold on to them or trade them. Not established non-rookies--Hendriks, Robertson (both demoted early), Plouffe, Florimon, Dozier, and Parmelee. Several position players were new starters this April, none of them had started all year in 2012. This is a group that the Twins have to determine whether they should be starters going forward and if the Twins need to check out the minors of other teams. So far, the results have been mixed, at best. Dozier and Parmelee have been disappointments, Plouffe held his own until his injury and Florimon has exceeded very modest expectations. The two pitchers I mentioned didn't make it through April. Fringe guys--Hernandez, Walters, Deduno, Colabello, and Thielbar--These guys mostly are placeholders who get a chance to stay in the majors. None of them project to be long term Twins or stars, but they will get a chance to keep in the majors if they do their jobs. If any of these guys have to be demoted or ride the bench for a long period, so be it. If any of them can be a productive player in the coming years, it will be a bonus. Rookie Prospects--First of all, these are guys who the Twins are banking on to help them be a good team again. The team will do everything they can to help these guys become producers in the coming years. The players include Arcia, Hicks, and Gibson. The Twins approach seems to be different for each guy--they've stuck with Hicks despite his major struggles, they've sent Arcia down three times and much to many contributors' frustrations they have refused to promote Kyle Gibson despite the worst starting rotation in the major leagues. In discussing transactions, playing time, trades, or demotions, it is important to remember that everybody doesn't get treated the same, nor should they. Goal one is to do what is right to help the prospects succeed. We can argue with the plan, but we, the fan base, must support the idea of developing talented, young, and inexpensive players. For me, I would have sent Hicks down to secure his services for another year and build his confidence at Rochester. Gibson, IMHO, should have been promoted at least a week ago and I basically agree with the treatment of Arcia, although it hasn't been smooth for him. The unproven non-rookies need a longer leash than barely a quarter of the season. Since this is a non-competing year, the Twins need to find out about them. I think somewhere around midseason is a fair evaluation period. Some of the veterans need to be traded, some should stay as veteran preference for the improved teams fueled by a (now) top-notch farm system. The key component for the near future for the Twins is their starting staff. They need to develop/acquire enough talent to compete with the deep rotations in Detroit, Cleveland and several other AL cities. Let's see if Ryan's moves work out, particularly with the starting staff.

Congratulations to Baxendale. He dominated the FSL. I hope he carries it on to New Britain.

Gibson has 60 innings in Rochester. 100 in Minnesota, or only 70? As noted above, another stellar outing.