JB_Iowa

Safer for German Kayakers than the Grand Canyon. (With apologies to the families of the German Kayakers -- no disrespect intended.) But I'm thinking they should stick to the U.S. version of the Autobahn. Has a cousin named Nub, a football coach named Wood Newton, enjoys the front porch swing and glass of lemonade.

Brian Murphy ‏@murphPPress 2m Dozier visited chiropractor in Detroit for adjustment that helped but pain, tightness in back will prevent him from coming off bench tonight

Who thinks on a Friday afternoon????

Joseph Stromberg has a really interesting interview with orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews on the Vox Conversations website: http://www.vox.com/2014/6/13/5803496/an-interview-with-dr-james-andrews-the-man-whos-operated-on-all-your#interview Just a great read but some of the things I found most interesting were his comments about dealing with the press (seems like we've all discussed that before) and his opinion on why there has been such a rash of TJ surgeries (and how to prevent the need). What makes treating athletes so difficult? ... With professionals, it gets even more complicated, because you've still got the patient and the mother — I don't care how old they are — but also the agents, the team doctor, the trainer, the physical therapist, the coach, management. And the most difficult, nowadays, is the press. The press has no idea about HIPAA laws — about violating confidentiality. And if you don't handle it properly, they'll just say whatever they want to say. So it just gets more complicated as you go up the ladder. You recently wrote a position statement on the rash of Tommy Johns' injuries in baseball right now. What do you think is causing it? I think the biggest thing is overuse, especially during childhood. If you look at the major league pitchers that I'm seeing, if you study their history, you'll find that they had injuries during their youth. They may have forgotten about it — I had one in here last week, we could tell from the X-ray, and he said, "Oh, I remember now, when I was 12 I missed a month of baseball with a sore elbow." About 50 percent have some pre-existing minor injury from overuse that was ignored. There is much more in the interview -- well worth a few minutes of your time.

Minnesota Twins ‏@Twins 14m #MNTwins place OF Aaron Hicks on DL, recall C Eric Fryer and reinstate OF Sam Fuld.

Except for Phil Hughes -- at least in 2014 -- if you define "pitching to contact" as throwing in the strike zone. Phil Hughes is throwing more than 59% of his pitches in the zone. And his first pitch strike rate is just over 70%. So if you define "pitch to contact" as throwing in the strike zone, it can be successful. I think this is actually what Anderson means by "pitch to contact" -- throwing it in the zone. I don't think he ever meant it to be throw it in a location and in a manner in which opposing batters can hit it at an extraordinarily high rate. Unfortunately Twin pitchers frequently haven't executed it well. That's why seeing Hughes have a good season is fun. Control plus velocity. Would be great if Berrios could emulate that.

I think it may be too early to tell. The test will be whether Anderson can keep him from tinkering too much during the course of the season but I do think that Hughes' mindset (strikethrowing) meshes perfectly with Anderson's control philosophy. "I asked him what was the deal with the homers over there," Anderson said. "I said, `Is there anything I should watch for in your deliveries?" The problem, both agreed, was that when Hughes struggled, he tinkered with his mechanics. He was thinking too much about what to do instead of just taking the mound and doing it. "I was constantly making adjustments last year after I got off to a rough start, couldn't really get out of it and that wasn't necessarily a good thing," he said. "I had success in this league doing a certain thing and when I got away from that it was just kind of a downward spiral." Anderson puts it more simply: "When that mind gets in the way, it's hard to have success." http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10491716/phil-hughes-minnesota-twins-looking-forward-pitching-new-park Also, it seems like in Spring Training, he was concentrating on his curve (http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_25243055/twins-phil-hughes-reconnecting-long-lost-curveball) whereas his success this season may be due to the increased use of his cutter (http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24585623/more-than-a-change-of-scenery-behind-phil-hughes-success-with-twins) Don't know how much Anderson may have contributed to that pitch selection but some input seems reasonable. The Axisa piece on CBS sports points out several possibilities contributing Hughes' success: extreme strikethrowing with seemingly better placement; pitch selection -- including the increased use of the cutter; getting out of New York; and reaching a certain level of pitching maturity at 27. Hard to know how much Anderson contributed to any of them. But if he (and Suzuki) can manage to keep Hughes' head in the right place, all should be well. It was one reason it was great to see PH come back with a good game in Toronto after a bit of a clunker against the Astros -- stick with what had been working even if it lets you down once in a while.

Getting hurt is the straw that broke the camel's back? Or are you suggesting a la Derek Wetmore that he isn't hurt but conveniently using his shoulder to avoid being sent down? I find that suggestion incredibly insulting. I have been searching the stories for actual quotes from Twins officials and finally found something from Gardenhire. My suggestion that it is "nothing" is not that the injury is nothing but that LEN3 and Derek Wetmore are trying to stir the pot -- I've addressed LEN3's comments extensively above. This last story was in response to jokin's post of Derek Wetmore's tweet suggesting that this injury was "convenient." You're right, there is nothing convenient about it -- but Wetmore's tweet suggesting that it was convenient is just flat out insulting.

I find that by following Seth Stohs, I pretty much see re-tweets of all the news I want to know.

I noticed he managed to send the tweet but didn't mention it as one of his 5 thoughts (or 10 thoughts). On the other hand, we have this article on Tuesday, June 10 from Berardino: TORONTO — Twins center fielder Aaron Hicks missed a third straight start Tuesday with a sore right (throwing) shoulder and could soon be headed back to the Twin Cities to be examined by the team’s medical staff. Hicks tried playing catch again Tuesday afternoon but was still hampered, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “It still bothers him,” Gardenhire said. “We’re going to have to figure this out in the next day or so. It’s not really getting much better, so we’ll make a decision here in the next day or two.” Hicks suffered the injury while making a diving catch to end Saturday’s win over Houston. He is available to hit or pinch hit, but throwing is off limits for now. http://blogs.twincities.com/twins/2014/06/10/twinsights-throwing-shoulder-still-bothering-aaron-hicks/ I have no problem with what Gardenhire said. It appears to me that certain reporters are the ones making much ado about nothing. Good grief, we could SEE the play on which the injury occurred unlike Pelfrey's groin injury (and while that one was convenient, I'm not prepared to judge and obviously he did have something wrong in a different body part).

Apparently Derek Wetmore wasn't watching the game on Saturday.

Sorry, asleep at the switch.

Morrie Silver ‏@MorrieSilver8 35m Red Wings Transactions: ADD: C Josmil Pinto optioned to RochesterADD: C/OF Chris Herrmann reinstated off DL from Rochester, NY Morrie Silver ‏@MorrieSilver8 36m Red Wings Transactions 6/12/14:DELETE: C Eric Fryer recalled by Minn.DELETE: LHP Matt Hoffman exercised the out clause in his contract

Interesting story on the Pinto demotion from Derek Wetmore: http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Should_the_Twins_send_Josmil_Pinto_to_the_minors061114

I honestly don't understand this Hicks story or where the information being fed to LEN3 is coming from. In mid-May (not quite a month ago), we read about his lack of preparation including the line that he sometimes came to the ballpark w/o knowing th days opposing pitcher. In partial response to that one, Berardino made it clear that Hicks always knew who they were facing when he talked with him pre-game. (not going to look up that tweet/story but I remember it). Then on May 29, the PP published an article entitled "Twins' Hicks Arriving Early, Taking More Cuts" http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_25858230/twins-aaron-hicks-arriving-early-taking-more-cuts which included this: Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said a bat has to be pried out of the hands of center fielder Aaron Hicks. "He has had a bat in his hand every five seconds," Gardenhire said. "It's a little overkill for him." Since the initial stories, Hicks' line has been: .263/.391/.316/.707 Not stellar but better than the start of the year and moving up. In the last 7 days: .400/.500/.600/1.100 I realize he hasn't played much but it's hard to see anything too wrong there. Then on Saturday, Hicks injured his shoulder making a pretty good diving catch -- personally, I wondered if he injured his shoulder right when the catch was made given the way he landed. I don't know why anyone would question soreness/stiffness in his shoulder. We've seen other stories this week about Hicks' shoulder stiffness/soreness. There's also been some speculation around here that he needs to go to AAA to work on his game as a full-time right-handed batter. But they've just been ordinary stories/reports. But I have been searching around the net and can't find anyone else with the venom of LEN3's comments. They finally criticized him in the press for not preparing well. And he hasn't responded. There are people in the organization who believe he's blowing his chance here. Hasn't responded? It looks to me like he has responded on the field. And from the little I could find, it sounds like he was working harder. Then he had 2 injuries/near injuries in the field. The first on the leaping catch which saved a HR at the end of May. Gardenhire responded to that by keeping him on the bench for a couple of games as a precautionary measure (there was some discussion that he hurt his side going above the wall). And now we have the shoulder soreness -- if you watch that catch, I don't know why anyone might question that his shoulder might be sore. The thing that bothers me most is LEN3's statement that: "There are people in this organization who believe he's blowing his chance here". I don't know if this LEN3 printing some speculation because frankly, his coverage has been blown away by most other reporters coverage, or if someone in the Twins organization is feeding this to hm. I've gone through a lot of other posts and can't find any other reporter speculating in this way. While I think Aaron Hicks may well be put on the DL or optioned to Rochester, I think some of this pot-stirring may well be bad, lazy journalism.

At least one writer (Mike Axisa, CBS Sports) thinks Phil Hughes is a "deserving All Star". http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24585623/more-than-a-change-of-scenery-behind-phil-hughes-success-with-twins The article also has an interesting chart detailing Hughes' pitch selection through the years.

Tonight is also known as Friday in Detroit since today's game is over. Although I guess he could get another start in New Britain tonight. (My Bad.)

Rhett Bollinger ‏@RhettBollinger 53s Pinto optioned to AAA Rochester

Maybe YOU broke Joe's Hex.

Somebody found some really good super glue for that rubber band!

I find it sexist that they only want to let me chat with Thai ladies .... they could at least let me chat with Thai men. If I want to chat with a Thai lady, I'll go talk with my cousin's wife.

I don't know if he's trying to appease Gardenhire or what but it just seems like in most stories, he was ready to come out.

Minnesota Twins ‏@Twins 11m Final line for @PJHughes45: 7 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 Ks. #LightsOut

I think Hughes kind of decides when he wants out ... at least most of the time that's what it sounds like.

Nightmares.