Jim H

Twinsfan, I think you are largely right about this. I also suspect that maybe why Liriano is getting this extended opportunity to figure it out. The same is true of Blackburn. Diamond is up for that reason, at least in part. Can he be a major league starting pitcher? We will likely see guys like Walter, French and Henriks again before the season is out. I also think that some lower level starting pitchers may get challenged a bit by moving them faster than the Twins usually do, just to see if they could be answers sometime in 2013 or 14. Clearly the starting pitching is the biggest problem for the Twins right now. The Twins may have to resort to throwing money at the problem, but if there are any internal answers they will try to discover them this summer.

The issue here is intent. The problem of course is 2-fold. Most pitchers in the majors won't survive very long if they are unwilling to pitch inside. There are pitchers who don't mind hitting batters, there are those who would prefer not to. But, unless someone admits it, it is pretty darn hard to prove intent. It is pretty likely nobody will be willing to admit intent from now on. None of this will make baseball safer. Just like the warning rule does not make baseball safer. Personally, I would probably prefer to face a pitcher like Hamel who has good control and if he hits you it will likely be in the lower body or legs, rather than some young hard thrower who has to pitch inside to be effective but does not have very good control.

Calling up Dozier at this time was not all about Dozier. You are probably right that he could use more time at AAA. However, there was no middle infielder backup at the majors, except Flouffe. It appears that Carroll was proving that he really is better suited as a utility man. There was no else at AAA or really AA either except maybe Florimon, who should be called up. So there you are. Most things don't really work out exactly like you want them to. Still, calling up Dozier clearly was part of the "plan" for this year. The exact timing depended how everything else was working. I expect Dozier will be all right. If he handles the defensive side all right, anything he produces offensively this year will be a bonus. He doesn't have to hit much to be an upgrade over Carroll or Casilla.

The idea that the Twins never draft hard throwers or high school pitchers who have the potential to be hard throwers with good stuff is just wrong. Every year there are some among the 20 plus pitchers drafted every year. Largely, there nothing wrong with the Twins philosphy of pitching. It probably comes down to luck as much as anything. I suspect the kid pitchers like Waldrop, Rainville, Bashore and Hunt were just as talented with as much potential to turn into dominant pitchers as the collection now pitching for San Francisco or Seattle or even Washington. It just didn't happen. Pitching is just incredibly volatile. Sometimes, a Strasburg will get hurt and comeback from the injury 100%. Sometimes a Rainville or Bashore will get hurt and never come back at all. Some young pitchers develop like you think they will and stay healthy sometimes they don't. You can point to bad drafting or poor instruction and I am sure that can be a factor. But some of it can be just luck. When Radke was pitching at AA for the Twins, he was largely considered the 3rd best starter on that team. At least based on stats that year. He turned out to be the best starter while Hawkins had little success as starter and the other guy never made the majors at all. There were others who in the system at the same time as Radke who were considered better prospect as well. Most never even appeared in the majors. Unfortunately, that is often how it works with pitching. You can certainly find a number of pitchers taken after guys taken by the Twins in recent drafts who are having and will have better careers than the Twins draftees. Likely you will find some spectacular failures taken in front of them as well. It is easy to point at certain teams right now and say wow, why aren't the Twins drafting and developing pitching as well as these guys? (Washington, Seattle, Texas, Tampa Bay and others). But those same teams were having trouble finding good home grown pitching just a few years ago. That may very well be true again in a few years. Pitching is very volatile.

Actually, I agree with John. If the Twins were to get decent starting pitching, just a bunch of quality starts, say, I could see the Twins make a run towards contention. It happened last year, till the pitching fell apart, again. The everyday players seem healthier than last year, and if they could get a bit of spark at the bottom of the order, they could score some runs. I would just like to see how this team might perform if they weren't down 2-3 runs at the bottom of the 2nd inning every night.

"Mauer may well be a wonderful player, and he might even get into the Hall of Fame some day, but I'd be shocked if the Twins ever won a World Series with Mauer in their uniform" dwintheiser, My guess is that whether the Twins win a World Series with Mauer in the linup, will hinge more on the Twins finding or developing decent starting pitching than Mauer's leadership. Puckett was universally lauded for his leadership but he "led" the Twins to far more losing seasons than winning ones. The winning seasons of 87, 88, 91, and 92 were all hallmarked by at least decent starting pitching. Interestingly enough, the Twins actually had a better record in 88 than 87, also a better record in 92 than 91, they just didn't win the divisons those years. I don't know if Puckett's leadership was better in those winning years than the losing ones or not. I don't want to be a total smart ass here, but I don't think Mauer's leadership has much to do with the losing last year or this year. If the starting pitching somehow gets straightened away this year, we could very well see the Twins make a run back toward contention. We also we likely get to read how Mauer and Morneau helped "hold the team together thru all the early losing". That will be especially true if both start hitting good.

And no matter how good Mauer is as a player, if he's not going to be a leader, I don't see the Twins getting the best performance out of their ballclub. Simple as that. Dwintheiser, how do you know that Mauer is not a leader? This is a serious question. It maybe that he is not, but he may very well be a rather quiet but important presence in the clubhouse who only speaks up when it is necessary. My point would be, we don't know. We probably will never know, but I certainly wouldn't take the word of media members, especially those who are seldom in the clubhouse. I don't really think the Twins were ever Hunter's team. I don't know, of course, and he was a spokesman of sorts. But, I don't think leaders who throw teammates under the bus, are generally considered leaders by those teammates.

Good article, Parker. It has always been my view of Liriano, that he never learned some of what would be the basics for most pitchers. He never needed them in the minors or when he came to the majors because his raw stuff/velocity was so incredible. Even since his TJ surgery, I think he believed he could just go back to what he had always done.(some quotes from Liriano last year indicated that belief) It has become increasing clear that he can't be successful in the majors without mastering his mechanics. It finally looks like Liriano himself realizes this. Liriano clearly still has enough stuff to be a successful starter. If he can get himself together it probably can still happen. I think the it is probably in the Twins best interests to keep him in the rotation, at least for awhile.

This is a good article and I agree with your basic points. My frustration is not with Mauer, but with a good portion of the Minneapolis media. They seemily have been down on Mauer from the time he was drafted(Prior anyone). A good part of the Mauer is soft, he needs to be a better leader, he needs to hit more home runs, comes from a vocal part of the media. Now, the notion that anyone who plays catcher is soft, almost requires a break with reality. There is no other position in baseball that takes anywhere near the beating a catcher does. The call for more home runs is more understandable, even though Hrbek should be a good warning. Hrbek went from being a good all around hitter with good gap power and occasional home runs, to a thirty home run guy with holes in his swing. I think the real problem the media has with Mauer is that the media likes guys like Hunter. Guys who are always good for a quote, who occasionally throw teammates under the bus in charming ways, who have a flare for the dramatic and self promotion, even if the production really doesn't quite match the flash. Mauer is not flashy, but he is a great hitter. When he is hitting well, the gap power will generally make up for the lack of home runs. I suspect that his supposed lack of leadeship is more of a media thing than an actual thing. Personally, I am glad we have a talent like Mauer to watch. Much like watching Killebrew, Carew, Santana and others who have performed in Minnesota, it is fun to watch true professionals with unique skill sets.

This is a fairly blatent example of selecting facts to fit your argument and ignoring anything else that doesn't fit. A great many guys over the last ten years have not been resigned, both minorities and whites. Koskie, Jones, Cuddyer, Guzman, Kubel and others fit into this catergory. The author ignored the resignings of Puckett and Stewart. Also various extentions to the Hunter, Silva, Santana and others. What I think is, that managment is committed to fielding the best team possible within a set budget. Largely, they try to avoid committing large amounts of money to players with declining skills. Racism is a topic that is certainly worth exploring as it relates to the sports world. But, I think this is a rather poorly presented argument and it should be largely ignored.

I don't think anything is set in stone yet. Revere could still end up taking the majority of the starts in LF. If Morneau is completely healthy, he gets a lot of starts at 1B. Willingham could get starts at DH. There is a lot of flexibility this year. I don't think there will be many guys starting over 150 games this year, even if everyone is 100% healthy. Revere is probably too good and too young to get buried on the bench. Even if the Twins wanted to trade him, you won't get much for him till he proves he could be a big league regular.

Or Willingham could go to DH, with Plouffe in RF and Doumit catching, with either Mauer or Morneau getting a day off. Or both getting a day off with Hughes at first. There are actually a lot ways to contruct a lineup this year. The Twins will likely miss Thome in some ways but this group will likely be a lot more flexible.

I don't mind if Dozier makes the team out of spring training. Various quotes earlier this spring make me think he still has things to work on. I rather expect the Twins will start him at AAA. Still, he is close to a finished product and overall, defensively and offensively he could likely be as productive as Carroll at short. I question why the Twins would move Carroll over to start at 2nd. Carroll is a career utility man. He is comfortable moving from position to positon. He clearly plays 3rd well. He is also 38 years old and making him a full time starter for what is really the first time in his career is a bit unusual. More importantly the Twins really need to find out if the high level play Casilla has shown in flashes, is the real Casilla. I expect Casilla will start at 2nd, no matter what is done with Dozier. I expect the leash to be relatively short. Casilla needs to perform a higher level, no more month long slumps offensively and defensively. You can always move Carroll over to 2nd or out of the utility role at any time, if Casilla doesn't perform consistently.

I have heard Ryan say (over years) that Casilla's best position is 2B. Apparently Gardenhire agrees with that. While Casilla probably has better range than Carroll, it seems like we are looking at a short term situation here. The Twins seem to be looking at Dozier as the medium term answer at short. They seem to think it will be his position at some point(now, this year, beginning of next year) and that he will be able to hold it for awhile. If that is the case, and if you believe Casilla is at least a medium term answer at 2B, using Carroll as a short term answer at SS and maybe a longer term anwer at utility man, makes sense. Obviously, many people don't think Casilla is an answer to anything, and some don't think Dozier will be able to play major league SS. I would like to see the Dozier/Casilla combination but I doubt it will survive more than a couple of years.

Good write up Seth. I am a bit confused with still having 6 middle infielders in camp. I wouldn't think there are enough AB's for them all. I agree that Dozier should be starting somewhere, and since he is still in camp, he must be in the running for the starting SS job. Otherwise he is taking AB's to no purpose because Gardy and his staff should of seen enough to know what he is. I am also surprised that Chang, Florimon and Hollimon are all still in camp. I would think you would pick 2 and let them compete for the backup job.

Ryan said on the radio today that Plouffe wasn't a candidate to be backup SS. He said Plouffe could back up at 1B. He also said Plouffe had to make the team. Gladden basically asked Ryan if thought Nishioka could learn how to play big league SS in AAA if he couldn't in 2 ST and a full big league season. Ryan said he didn't expect anything but was hopeful. No other questions were asked about the backup SS although Gladden said after Ryan left, that Ryan preferred Dozier to play everyday. Gladden speculated that Castilla could be the backup SS. Since Gladden said it, I would assume that won't happen but who knows.

There are guys with similar power to Revere who manage higher walk rates. Carroll, Castilla and Punto to name 3. If you are going to walk more when you have little power, you have to take strikes early in the count. I suppose Revere could learn to do that, but he does seem to make a lot of contact when he swings at pitches.

I guess everyone was right about Nishioka. My question is will the Twins try to sell his contract to a Japanese team? If he isn't a utility man and Dozier is considered to be the medium term answer at short-what real value does Nishioka have to the Twins? I don't know if it is possible to sell his contract to a Japanese team, or what Nishioka's wishes might be. I can't see that playing at AAA will do him a lot of good, but I suppose I could be wrong.

"And, why can't he learn to take a walk? Is that a hard skill to learn?" Mike, maybe it is because he makes too much contact. When he swings at a pitch he doesn't miss and more go into play. I think Puckett had that "problem". When he swung at something he tended to make contact. Every spring, Puckett talked about taking more walks. It never happened. It is hard to change your spots.

"Most likely scouts or front office people. Buster Olney is a veteran national reporter, I doubt he uses "bloggers who like to watch spring training" as sources." Maybe you are right, Nick. Still, why use something rather vague like talent evaluator instead of saying where you got the information. This whole thing with Nishioka kind of seems like piling on. I am not so sure he is really playing all that badly this spring. We will see, but I rather expect he will make the team, get some chances and largely play OK. What seems sure, is that every time he makes an error, real or imagined, somebody will complain about what a huge mistake it was to sign him.

Just how bad has Nishioka been in the field this spring? I have seen the he looks lost comment a few times. A number of bloggers have been taking shots, but that seems mostly based on last year. Is the "He is Bad" comments based on a few bad plays, or more a misplay every game, or just the "He looks lost" comments? I tend to mistrust the herd mentality we find in the blogsphere and even in the main stream media. I haven't really seen anything attributed to Gardy or Ryan or even a trustworthy Twins guy.

Actually the rule has been around for awhile. I don't know how much it really effects things. Occasionally someone gets sent back to the minor league camp a little earlier than they might of otherwise. If a guy has a chance to make the 25 man roster, they aren't going to be sent down. The major effect sometimes, is that the guys that fill out a particular day's roster in the later part of spring training are non 40 man roster guys. That's when you might see a Sano or Rosario or one of the young pitchers for the last inning or so.

I think it is more about consistency than anything else. Guiterrez is maybe the most dominating relief pitcher in camp. Yet, he has never been consistent in the minors and he isn't likely to be in the majors. When he starts showing that consistency, he will be in the majors. I think the same is true about Oliveras, Burnett, and maybe Robertson. I think the guys who start the year with the Twins may not have dominating stuff, but are more likely to bring "get the hitter out" stuff more often than the younger guys.

I dislike reports like this. What does "talent evaluators" mean? Are they scouts, front office people, the manager, reporters, or maybe bloggers who like to watch spring training? It maybe that the Twins are looking are alternatives to Nishioka for the utility position. It is likely they would be doing that no matter how good Nishioka looked. There are have been some suggestions like this from the reporters following the Twins. I notice that they are kind of careful not to quote actual Twins sources.