Han Joelo

Is that a typo? 71 rbi for ABW?

Is Minier going to join the pantheon of E-town greats? Think I would've given him the him the Hitter award today-game tieing and winning hits!

Wasn't Wimmers a high strikeout guy when he first debuted? I seem to remember lines like this way back when.

While I agree with the dfa, I'm glad the Twins took some flyers on some veteran bullpen arms this spring. Staffer didn't work out, Boyer has, at least so far. Regardless of how good Tonkin and Oliveras look in AAA, they seem to be ghosts of Slama. Glad Boyer has been around.

Great read--thanks for sharing. Love the secret sauce.

I like the article and share in the hat tip to players like this, no matter how people feel the need to define them. Plouffe feels like someone who is going to latch on with the cardinals or Giants and hit a big playoff homer someday. Proud de is hard to get past auto correct.

How did Burdi get four outs throwing 14 pitches, with only 6 of them strikes? Larson and Granite all over the leaderboard. Nice. And Goodrum sixth in SL and OBP (but not OPS)--is he a permanent 3B now?

Excellent article. I found your use of metaphors colorful, your tone challenging but conversational, the theme relatable, and your word choice musical. Also, you used effective though not rigid meter, a digestible word count, clear but not overly simplistic sentence structure, and your font type and size along with your line spacing prove you have exceedingly clear but sympathetic vision. I found the illustrations aeshetically pleasing and subtly thought provoking. Also, you used appropriate ratios of contrasting colors. All in all, your writing demonstrates that most elusive of skillsets--the rare, true, "ten tool" baseball writer.

Apparently Tyler Duffey was the only pitcher who understood when the memo went out saying the Twins are NOT a pitch to contact team. What is the organizational record for BBs in one day? How about Lookout Outlook? Lookout Ledger?

Since movies are being referenced, I'll just mention I've always preferred movies that feature a band of rag-tag misfits fighting impossible odds (oftentimes their own immediate superiors) to save the Galaxy or Middle Earth at the last second, always in the face of doom. Having legions of orcs, stormtroopers, and blog posters on the doorstep helps to keep that doomsday feeling immediate. I'm sure there were a lot of posters on RebelsDaily that were pretty upset with how the star war was going. I mean, sending an undrafted free-agent out of Tatooiene to blow up the Death Star? They clearly rushed him. He couldn't even hit the breaking blaster off the AA probe, and destroying that left-handed Tie-fighter from the Falcon's belly gun was too small a sample size. By starting his service time clock with that hopeless attack on the Death Star, they risked losing a year of control in his prime, a year when they would need him to destroy the Emperor. Not evacuating the moon of Yavin and going into full rebuild mode was incompetent. As was signing Porkens, an aging, no upside veteran, to pilot an X-wing. Zed Rosabrio should've been piloting that fighter. Course, on the other hand, you have to hand it to that area scout Kenobi for signing Skywalker in the first place, and to Yoda for forcing him to repeat dAgobAh after he missed time with that unfortunate cold injury and again (briefly) after that hand injury. Those two old school codgers sure knew what they were doing. Course, I didn't care for it much when sabermetrician figured out how to measure force ability as a co-efficient to mitochlorion levels in the blood. Darth Maul was definitely a mito-juicer. And don't get me started on Gandalf. He expected to take down Sauron with a lineup that included four Hobbits??? Bush league. The Architect of the Matrix would never have allowed it. We all know it was statistically unlikely for Luke to blow up the Death Star, which is why George Lucas titled his next film Star Wars Episode V: Regression to the Mean.

This would support my theory about the fifth starter race: they knew about the likely suspension all along and picked Millone to boost his confidence. Then TR fessed up in the closed door meeting.

Great stuff. Love learning about the human side of players. Meyer: I agree with him on pre-season prognosticators. The Twins have a decent core and a bunch of youngsters about to tear down the gate. I'm not predicting playoffs, but I'd bet on the field when it comes to the worst record in the AL. Heck, I don't even think the Twins will be the second worst. Beresford: Australia is a long ways a way--16 hour flight, plus a days difference--when he wants to call his parents, he has to add a day and subtract something like 8 hours to sync up. When I worked in Antarctica (on New Zealand time) I called at midnight the day after Christmas to catch my family after they had just got done opening presents. Plouffe: Baby due on the all-star break? Well played. Those long road trips are going to suck for him in July, and when he's home…he'll get to play catch up on diaper duty. Get lots of sleep on the airplane, Trevor.

"Peter. What is up." "Umm, well, my sales were a little down las month, so I thought I'd read up about pitch framing. " "Right. Why don't you go ahead and send me a memo about that when you are done. Anybody that can understand pitch framing has punched their ticket for upper management. "

Thanks, Seth. Love to see the human side of players, not just their triple slash.

I think Butera suffers from the same thing Capps did--being associated with the Ramos trade. I.e. he's logged a lot of innings that Ramos otherwise would have. But leaving past misuse aside, I don't think he's a terrible option as third catcher--as long as he's stationed in Rochester and not the end of the bench. Check out Fangraph's positional power rankings for catchers:2013 Positional Power Rankings: Catcher | FanGraphs Baseball The list is littered with catchers who are almost as bad as Butera. Some of them are even primary backups. I'm hopeful Hermann and Rohlfing surpass Butera on the food chain this year, and that Pinto turns out to be a legit prospect. Until then, Butera has proven himself to be consistently replacement level and he has a pretty good knowledge of a lot of the Twins staff. And if Escobar or Clement can man the position in a pinch, there is absolutely no need to roster him.

Nicely done! Chris could be one of those "Major League" type characters that help this team to a highly improbable pennant push. As much as I'd enjoy seeing Thome back, this guy deserves a shot.

Drew Butera is the worst hitter in all of baseball. This may be true, but there are a lot of awful hitting backup (and starting) catchers in the league. Nice post, by the way.

Yes. Thank you Seth.

Arrgg! I'm so confused by this "year of control" issue! I keep seeing conflicting theories. Is it a year extra before free-agency, or an extra minimum wage year? I can't believe the Players Union would give up a year of free agency in exchange for a good player being kept down. That is a lose lose.

"Hicks is not Trout or Harper." Exactly. He looks to be a better version of Span, but no superstar, so why worry about service time. He'll be trade fodder in three years anyway. Don't get me wrong--if he/they aren't ready to contribute, shelve this discussion. But if they are, what is the point of giving Brandon Boggs a roster spot (and potentially losing someone else off the 40 man) in favor of a distant future that may never come. Plus, if they've earned a spot on the team, perhaps rewarding them now would make them more likely to sign a team friendly contract later.

I totally see your point of view. However, if they impress in the spring, bring them both north. A couple of factors: Last year's AAA hitting and pitching coaches are on the big league staff now, so instructionally, they're kind of getting the same thing. With Byron Buxton in the pipeline behind Hicks, I don't see the extra year of control outweighing the need for a lead-off hitting outfielder. This would also enable Mastro to be a late inning defensive sub. As for Gibson, he's 25 and deserves a shot, even if it means shutting him down Strasburg style. I know there is more than one way to limit innings, but having go through a normal spring training and then regularly pitch 5-7 innings seems like a good thing for his long-term development, even if it means ending his season early.

Excellent post. I don't entirely agree with you, but consider this paraphrased quote from Einstein: "Prohibition is bad for democracy. Public meeting houses are integral to democracy--where else can you agree to disagree over a few tasty brews." The inter web is opposite. Especially when your team sucks. But as a near forty-year old, I choose to wear the rose tinted glases, drink the Kool-Aid, etc. I don't have time in my life with kids and mortgage and whatnot to dissect saber metrically every move the Twins make. I guess I'm just a glassy eyed homer who doesn't happen to pay taxes in Hennepin County. One of my best days in the last couple of years was watching Jimmer hit 600 on MLB TV along with my 2 year old. Honestly, I callled it. My boy had no idea what he was cheering for, but boy did he cheer.

Yep, he was. I seem to remember a lot of teeth gnashing at the time over the Twins giving up a hard throwing strikeout guy for a soft-tossing lefty, but it appears they got it right. With our without PED's, Bullock hasn't been able to find the strike zone.

Me too. Would be great to have some hard throwers with low mileage on their arms as starters.

It was a great story and well worth the read. While the article juxtaposes marginal relief prospects, one of whom made the majors with the help of PED's, I've often thought of how Roger Clemens was making tens of millions while somewhere far down the trickle down train a young guy had his dreams quashed. And its not about the money--its about the ego or whatever.