JB_Iowa

I've said before that I think they should send Gardenhire fishing when they play the Yankees. I still believe that.

According to Cot's Baseball Contracts, the Twins do have an option on Baker for 2013. For $9.25 million. That may or may not make you feel better.

I have no problem with Morneau at DH if that keeps him off the DL. I don't think anyone knows exactly where this is headed. Does his being primarily the DH mean that he NEVER plays 1st? Or, for example, when Mauer needs a DH day, does Justin go out and play 1st? It seems to me that the Twins biggest goal has to be to keep them both off the DL and productive at the plate. While offensive numbers alone won't justify either of their salaries, they are a lot better then pouring money down the drain on the DL. And I do think that CDog makes a very good point about Doumit and Parmelee. It is rarely one player for another (except when we see Butera for Mauer) -- you have to see all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle at once.

Best laugh I had all day is this quote from the article cited by admin at 4:26: 'Mackey, for what it's worth, said in an e-mail this morning that "if I could go back in time, I would have presented my points with a less condescending tone." ' He is almost always condescending. It is why I stopped following him on twitter months ago. The irony, for me, is that I generally think his reporting is more insightful than that of the Strib writers and various columnists. But he is a snotty twerp. So while I read what he writes on 1500ESPN, I unfollowed him a long time ago.

Apparently this thread is somewhat irrelevant. Bollinger tweeted that Ryan said they have to pay Zumaya the full $850,000 because the injury happened before the season. So the point about the 40-man makes more sense than ever.

I missed the Twiter debate but for me, part of the problem with mainstream journalists is that many of them aren't doing their jobs very well. Articles from paid reporters should not only have better content (and more access) than blogs but there should be better writing, editing and spelling. I know that there is a premium on getting information out quickly but the lack of editing has become ridiculous. I want -- and will pay for -- well-written articles that offer me insight that I can't get elsewhere. Unfortunately, as the mainstream media tries to keep up with the bloggers, the well-written pieces become fewer and farther between.

Congratulations guys! And thanks for your work in creating the site and for all your posts. Thanks, too, to everyone who has posted blogs or commented in the forums. I may not comment every day but I browse this site at least once or twice a day. Oh, and I'll get to the avatar thing sometime, I promise.

What impact would it have on service time for someone like Hendriks (sorry I never understand all those ins and outs)? Can't see the Twins messing that up for a couple of starts.

"Nishi wasn't drafted. This was a failure in international scouting. " I would still like to know how much can be attributed to a failure in international scouting and how much should be attributed to the front office's desire for a toehold in Japan. Were the scouts really this far off (I hope not) or did marketing decisions overcome scouting reservations?

For some reason I started a spreadsheet on this last July so I just went back and updated the 2011 wins/losses. In the Gardenhire era, the Twins are 38-33 against the Orioles, 30-32 against the Red Sox, 18-51 against the Yankees, 42-30 against Tampa Bay and 29-41 against the Blue Jays. 157-175 against the A.L. East overall. (Totals came from baseballreference). (I think these are only regular season games). As I look at it now, one of the things that strikes me as a discrepancy is that the Twins have played the Red Sox far fewer times than the other teams (62 vs. 69-71 for the others). I just now split the totals into 2 5-year segments (2002-2006) and (2007-2011). Their winning % against Baltimore improved slightly from the 1st 5 years to the second (19-18 improved to 19-11). Their winning % against Boston took a nosedive (18-12 down to 12-20). The Twins were 8-23 against the Yankees in the earlier period and then 10-28 in the later period. Their record against the Rays also took a nosedive in the more recent period (27-8 down to 15-22). And again took a nose dive against Toronto (19-13 down to 10-28). Their winning % against the East was 53% in the first 5 years and 41% in the latter 5 years. I'm not sure what to conclude from this (and would like to take a look at how some of the other Central teams fared). Overall, has the Eastern Division just gotten that much stronger while the Twins (and the Central in general I would guess) have stagnated? Can all of this be attributed to a lack of power pitching? (I doubt it). One conclusion I can draw is that while their record against the Yankees has been pretty abysmal over the entire 10 years, their "winning percentage" against them hasn't changed much. But the Twins' performance against Boston, Tampa and Toronto is taking a very unwelcome slide into Yankee territory.

I feel really sorry for this young man. But I'm beginning to think the Twins need to go out and sacrifice a chicken. First there were all the injuries last season. Then when they finally manage to have a number of high draft picks, it is in a fairly weak draft. Then they take a risk on Zumaya that only lasts about a week. Now a weak draft has gotten weaker. Twins just seem to have a bad karma kind of thing going.

I just think this season is truly unpredictable. So while I appreciate your (guarded) optimism, I prefer not to get my hopes up. I'd much rather be pleasantly surprised.

"Tough game for us. Marquis did ok...Manship bailed him out." No, Marquis did not do okay. I'm not ready to give up on him after one ST game but there was nothing "okay" about his performance last night.

It wasn't just that Marquis had a bad inning. It was that he was slower than molasses in doing so. The early pace of the game was horrendous. I'd like to attribute that to early Spring Training but apparently he always works slowly -- as we've seen in the past, that tends to have a very negative effect on Twins fielding. Was impressed with Hendriks, Guiterrez and even Manship but I hope that Gardenhire has scheduled still more additional extra work on fielding because the defense did not impress. I was disappointed that we didn't get a chance to see Valencia - Carroll - Caseilla but know I'll get to see them one of these days. And it was nice to see Morneau looking pretty confident. The only thing I think you can really take away from this game is that there is an awful lot of work left to do ... and I'm not sure that there are enough days left in ST to get it all done.

Thanks for the info Thry. Not a good sign for Twins fielders.

Does Marquis always work this slow?

Enough to make me laugh out loud. Thanks guys.

Thanks for the summary, Seth. All of a sudden it seems like there are so many games going on it is hard to keep track of who is doing what in them.

Why is it that I can't read the comments on this post without channeling Lesley Gore? I'm going to break out the lollipops.

In the past, I would have thought Morneau. But its hard to see anyone in that role until we see who is healthy.

I don't really know why people complain. If they have been reading any of your columns for very long, they would anticipate the differences. AND people should realize that every comment section is going to have cheerleaders and those of us who are grumpy. I've enjoyed the site so far and especially enjoy the fact that there are a lot of different writers -- many of whom I haven't read before. Seth has done a great job of recruiting some of the Twins minor leaguers to contribute -- and I look forward to reading more of them as the year goes on. But it is also interesting to go to the "Blogs" section and read viewpoints from new (at least to me) writers. This is a big (and potentially much bigger) website with lots of room for varying opinions and interests. I'd also appreciate it if we didn't have to read a column like this one again -- some people will always complain that what is written is too "pro" or too "con" and that the tone of the site is too positive or too negative. A mental "ignore" button is a good thing in those situations.

Thanks for posting -- this was a fun read. And you can add another fun fact about the 1st Twins ST home run in 2012 (okay its probably unofficial but it counts with fans!) Congrats on a great start for you in Spring Training.

Thanks for the post .... looking forward to reading more about your experiences.

Thanks for giving us a glimpse at the minor league side. Looking forward to your posts as the season goes along. Best wishes for a great spring training and season.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with Willingham. We should be able to judge by what he does rather than by what any of the coaching staff says.