stringer bell

Happy birthday Justin. Keep swinging (the bat)!

Correia had 8-9-1 coming up in the eighth. Wise hit the first pitch. I guess I would have started the bullpen before the inning started, but you don't want an already overtaxed BP throwing when they are not going to get in the game.

I predict Carroll, Escobar, and Doumit in, with Parmelee, Dozier and Willingham (?) out.

Bad umpiring mostly by young umps.

I turn away and it's 2-0 Back2Back jacks I see.

Over a foot of snow at my house 12 days ago.

Hammer is in the biggest funk of his Twins career. 4-36 with only two XBHs (doubles) since May 1.

Since coming to the Sox, Peavey has pretty much owned the Twins. He's coming off an injury (back IIRC), let's see if the Twins can get some good swings against him.

Worley has had an unusual amount of bleeders, choppers and bloops go for hits IMHO. However, he's had a high number of line drives and long fly balls hit against him, as well. I don't want to sound like my favorite Twins' analyst, but he needs to get and keep the ball down more. Humpbacked liners become grounders to short and second and become outs when a batter can't muscle the ball over the infield.

I certainly like what Pinto has done. I wonder if he will stay in NB until after they have an All-Star game. That would make sense to me.

Should be a warm one. It's also supposed to be breezy. Does a SW wind indicate the wind blowing out?

The other argument to stick with Pelfrey is that his last two outings would qualify and "good" and "okay", whereas Worley hasn't had a "good" outing since he pitched well at Chicago.

I finally checked the Twins' schedule and see that they have an off-day Thursday. That would mean that Gibson could still replace Hernandez with normal rest on Sunday. I hope that Gibson has another strong outing and that the Twins pull the trigger and bring Kyle up to the minors. At this point, Hernandez isn't a capable starter and so far neither are Pelfrey and Worley.

I have to agree with Mike to a degree. At the very least, it looks like Hicks' power side will be RH. As long as he can maintain a comparable OBP from both sides, I think it is acceptable for Hicks to be a full-time player, but if the OBP gap gets too big, then it shows a big problem for Hicks' future going forward.

The players called out in this article are all guys that have not met expectations. They all are guys that will determine how successful 2013 is. Plouffe hasn't has an extra base hit explosion, but as mentioned above, he's profiling as a league average 3B. Dozier has been very, very good defensively at a key defensive position, but the offense has been no better than last year. Parmelee has been a surprise defensively, but hasn't hit anywhere near a corner outfielder needs to in order to keep a position. Worley has been pretty close to Marquis-like in most of his starts--really a disappointment. There are replacements for Dozier (Escobar, Carroll) who would most likely be more of the same--Carroll would probably provide more offense, but what is the point when the guy is 39 years old? A replacement for Parmelee as a right fielder is Arcia, who has shown much more with the bat than Parm and looks like he will be on the roster for good. There aren't any real replacements for Plouffe--again Escobar or Carroll could fill in, but neither have power potential--and there is no one in the minors pushing for promotion who is a third baseman (above A ball). Worley has potential replacements. If he doesn't get it going soon, someone (Deduno, Gibson, Walters, De Vriese) will be available to take his place. I'd advise patience with all these guys. While it is nice that the Twins have a competitive product so far, contention is still pretty unlikely. Much more likely is/are trades to open a spot for Parmelee. Let these players play out the first half of the season and see which guys are good enough to play on a playoff team and which need to be replaced for 2014 and beyond.

Hicks 2 HR plus one HR stolen, so I guess he is a net +3.

Maybe a few of us can pitch in now RB. Holy cow! What a catch by Hicks. That will keep his average higher than Dunn. It also keeps Hernandez with a chance for a win (on his way to Rochester).

And he got Keppinger out, then again, everyone does.

A fine start for Hernandez!

If he hits and Sano develops at third, yes. I like Plouffe and hope he succeeds. He is oh so up and down though.

I'd also add P.J. Walters, who is healthy and pitching very well for Rochester. Walters, like Deduno, is not on the 40-man roster. I think the pecking order for replacement is: 1) Hernandez 2) Pelfrey and then 3) Worley.

1) I'd say he was the guy that was 3rd in first base production behind Herby and Killer, but that guy hasn't been around since 2010. 2) If this is "killing it", your threshold for this term would include a lot of players. Since the start of his hot streak (first game at Boston), he has two extra base hits, both doubles. He has a lot of hits, but it's like a Mauer hot streak. I think the risk of injury is too high and the return of the "classic Morneau" is too unlikely to merit even half of what he is making now. To give Morneau a qualifying offer is, to me, a guarantee that he'll take the money and a near certainty that he won't be close to worth it.

So that would mean the minimum that the Twins could offer in an extension is $12M, basically too rich for what he has produced since 2010.

Sorry Brock. Bad day to go to the old ballyard.

Agree that strikeouts are preferable, especially if free passes are limited. I will say that ground balls are preferable to fly balls, even in Target Field. The problem has been that Twins' sinkerballers seem no more likely to induce ground balls than most other starting staffs. It seems this year's version of the Twins infield defense has improved (eye test only), but some ground balls are going to get through.