stringer bell

Nice victory in Game 1. Not that excited about De Vriez pitching the nightcap.

It seems to me that Dozier has made all the plays and not really struggled in making them. He has also not made all the plays, making errors fielding and throwing on routine and not routine plays. Maybe he isn't as focused as he should be or is rushing more than he needs to, but his defense has been substandard despite having the tools to be a very good defender.

Let's see if I can summarize this. Most bullpens, but particularly the Twins' bullpen need a long man that can pitch multiple innings, might be called on to pitch a lot in a short time and then not pitch for a week. The Twins have Swarzak for that role and he has been pretty good for that. Manship profiles as another long man and he has not shown that he has the ability to pitch a lot in a short period of time, nor has he shown the ability to get big league hitters out in any role. Waldrop will not be a long man, but will join Burnett as a righthanded middle reliever/setup guy who mostly will pitch one inning three or four times a week with varying amounts of leverage.

I'll start a thread on Samuel Deduno. He's 28 (29 in July) and after missing more than a month is in Rochester's starting rotation. His raw numbers are pretty intriguing: 1-1 record 2.57 ERA in 35 innings. 21 walks, but 41 Ks and only 22 hits allowed. Given the state of the Twins' rotation, his live arm could and should get a shot sometime this season.

Perdomo promoted to Rochester and picked up his first win in AAA last night with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Florimon the Red Wing All-Star. I think this says volumes about both the lackluster talent at Rochester and the turnover they have experienced. I like Florimon quite a bit and perhaps he will get a trial with the Twins sooner rather than later if Dozier continued to flounder in the field. But he put in a month in double A and is only hitting .260.

Not a Manship fan. Unless the starting staff goes to seed, he really isn't right for a role in the Twins' bullpen. They have a long man (Swarzak) and Manship wasn't a fit to pitch in high leverage late innings. Waldrop will be a middle to setup guy and hopefully will get enough ground balls to make up for his lack of ability to miss bats. I have pictured Waldrop as a Guerrier type and his comeback from adversity is a good story.

Konerko isnt hitting, Dunn hasn't done anything, but Chicago is winning this game and probably the series. The Sox have better secondary players and much better pitching.

Mauer had no chance on any of those throws. Somewhere between 75 and 90 percent of the time, the base is stolen on the pitcher. There are a few catchers that are run on because they are pretty slow getting rid of the ball or have weak arms (AJ is one), but Mauer's throwing is fine.

If the Twins want to win this series, they had better win tonight. The Sale-Blackburn matchup isn't very appealing for the Twins tomorrow afternoon. The Twins have owned Floyd for awhile now, so I hope that continues. Hendriks needs to start producing and getting his first victory might take some pressure off.

BYTO will be missed. TD needs to accomodate the snark, humor and craziness that was a fun part of the site.

Reports are that Duensing will start again. With Perkins committed to the eighth and ninth inning in Capps absence, the Twins will probably need a lefthanded reliever. It is ironic that a couple weeks ago, it appeared the Twins had a surplus of relief pitchers ready to step in--now they have Guerra ineffective, Slama injured, Oliveros injured. It looks like the options are Waldrop and Robertson and they really need to lefty.

Dozier has made rookie mistakes and has taken his lumps lately. I think his defense is better than the high number of errors and he has the ability to hit. But, like Morneau right now, he's in an awful funk at the plate. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, he comes out of it. I certainly don't want to see Carroll starting lots of games at SS. If they want to send Dozier down, they should recall Florimon, who has done a decent job in the minors.

It looked to me like Carroll threw him a changeup.

I thought Doumit would have a better chance than Morneau--man he is sucking. For you old-timers here, when I saw the replay of J-Will's homer, I thought of Harmon, not the trajectory of the bomb but the way Willingham stepped across the plate.

"Six or more runs to win the game". Nope "Homer by a guy with zero homers." Un uh "Diamond leaves if allowing a baserunner in the eighth." Regrettably no. "Twins having no chance against Chapman". Not so much. Not very good at predicting today.

Yea--Diamond gets a complete game, but the Twins get a loss. I can't see them scoring off of Chapman.

Prediction: Diamond goes until he allows a baserunner in the eighth.

Really good corner OF defense in the sixth. Mastro kept Bruce at first on his liner toward the corner and then J-Will played the next ball very well setting up the relay that got Bruce by plenty.

Two predictions: 1) It will take six or more runs to win today's game. 2) Somebody who currently has zero homers for the Twins will go deep today.

Not necessarily slower, just they didn't want Mauer to aggravate the injury knowing that he wasn't going to stay in the game. Mauer/Hendriks were on first with runners ahead on second and third. All the runner on first had to do was go station to station.

Morneau is undoubtedly in a bit of a funk, but even when he's been going pretty well, it seems that he is swinging at EVERYTHING. I don't think his current line gives any value to a contender and I think he's relatively healthy, so.......is this all we are going to get for the life of his contract?Plouffe is getting some hits and playing all right in the field, but the home run swing seems to be gone for the moment. The last two night he has gotten pitches in his "happy zone" and hasn't done anything with them.The starting pitching is a true failure. Diamond competes and is acceptable at the back end of a rotation, Liriano (a free agent to-be) has been good lately, but appears to be a tease, Blackburn can't get to the seventh and gives up tons of well-hit balls and Hendriks hasn't figured out this major league thing yet. Duensing will get his chance today and I'm in favor of that. I'd like to see Deduno get a chance to start by next Saturday--he's throwing very well at Rochester. I like Dozier, but the young man hasn't hit five balls solidly since he started to slump. He had a cluster of errors, but I think he's okay in the field and he seems to go about the game the right way. A hot streak would probably make him, the Twins and the fans who still care feel a lot better about his prospects.I've said since spring training that the 2012 Twins will score more runs, play better defense, have improved health and have an acceptable bullpen. All of this has come to pass, but the club is on target for 90 losses again this year. Most of the Twins top prospects are scuffling so the chances for reinforcement from the minors is pretty small. I guess that means that the club needs to sell off some of the usable pieces they have and try to get players that can help them from 2013-2015. I would advocate trading for a guy that should be in the starting rotation next year at some point plus signing at least one starter in free agency. The AL Central is eminently winnable. The 2011 Tigers were a mirage, but the 2012 Tigers will probably end up winning the division (about 85 wins should do it). With an acceptable rotation, the Twins could be in the race as soon as next year.I'm a BYTOer (I am alswearingen1) and I endorse the merger of BYTO with TD. The product will be better and the conversation sharper.

It seems that dickbert have now been given permission to blame the starting pitching for the team's lack of success. While the numbers bear out fingering the starters for the team's record, it seemed to me that the announcers tiptoed around who to blame until quite recently. Unless there is a miracle with the starting staff, this club isn't going to contend and it now appears that blame will be dumped on only the starting staff.

Samuel Deduno! He pitched last night for the Red Wings. 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K. I believe Deduno is being stretched out from bullpen duties. I saw him in ST, thought he was much younger, but he sure looked to have a live arm.

Perkins is certainly not Cappsie. He strikes guys out. Yet, he has been a well-placed line drive from blowing both of his save opps against the bottom of the order. What is sad is that Blackburn now has the second-most wins on the Twins staff and he's only one victory behind Diamond.