jokin

Now that the Twins have optioned Josmil Pinto to get everyday experience in Rochester, if the Twins are really going for it, would they look past calling up their AAA depth and look outside the organization for someone with major league experience? Below are 2 bargain-bin examples. I withhold editorial comment, but not having to trade away anything of value, are these guys better options than Fryer?: 1) Jordan Pacheco has just been DFAd by the Rockies. 28 years old, 935 PAs. 2) Henry Blanco. Hammerin' Hank White is 42, former Twin, currently coach for the D-Backs, retired in 2013.

Technically correct, his first trip down in 2013 was for rehabbing a "sore hamstring" on June 9, but the Twins weren't in any hurry to get Hicks back up after that first trip to the DL, and only pulled the trigger to bring Hicks back on July 2, after 3 weeks of watching Willingham hobble around in LF before ultimately shutting Josh down. Sound familiar? Hicks seems to only get/keep a job when all the other alternatives have gone to the DL, and when he outshines everyone in exhibition ball. After a brief flurry of decent hitting in his first 7 games back in early July, from July 9 to August 1, Hicks had reverted to earlier form, fairly closely resembling his April horror show numbers, only this time it was this: .152/.219/.227/.445.

That incident seems more like the straw that broke the camel's back. I think they've been wondering about him for quite some time. I had heard things last summer that suggested that they really soured on him as a long-term option after his second demotion.

What background is this, you say?

I'm guessing he's at tomorrow's off-day workout in Detroit. I would think the Twins have seen enough to convince them on Fuld and are anxious to continue their operation of getting Rosario as many CF innings as possible. But I would be surprised if Fuld's inserted into the regular starting lineup over Santana any time soon, not as long anyways, as Santana is the hottest hitter in baseball not named Lonnie Chisenhall or Mike Trout.

Good call, STF. But I will say that a healthy chunk of that BABIP differential is the fact that Dozier has hit 29 HRs, versus only 14 for Cano and 8 for Carpenter. Having said that though, Brian had a high minor league BABIP, in the .333 range. And he's currently BABIPing 21 points below his major league BABIP coming into 2014, so there seems to be definitely room for his OBP and BA numbers to creep up quite a bit more with some better-placed batted balls. He just seems to have "the look" at the plate of a guy that can hit .270-.280 and OBP ~100 points higher than that.

The drama swirling around Aaron Hicks continues yet another day. Apparently, LaVelle got a few earfuls on background waiting for the plane to Detroit http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/262797911.html:

And when they finally get around to 60-daying Pelfrey, they create room on the 40-man roster for somebody in AAA to come up, and either help the playoff run or get the prospect important experience to get him better ready for 2015.

Agreed. FWIW, he currently ranks #1 in fWAR among 2nd Basemen (2.6), slightly ahead of Uttley- he's literally improving, and lapping the peer group field, right before our eyes. I think back to 2 years ago when he debuted as a SS, teased us for about a month with small glimpses of what he might be capable of, and then completely wilted. Upon his return last year, I figured the Twins would be fortunate to get a Punto-like career from Dozier, it just goes to show it's not always best to jump to what seems at the time to be logical conclusions.

I only wish our #3 hitter had 3 HR, he currently sits at 2.

Careful, that's Gardy's specialty.

Yesterday is the anniversary of when Brian Dozier flipped the switch in 2013 and began the amazing transformation to elite-level 2nd Baseman. How good has he become? Look below- he's just a shade below Robbie Cano in WAR @ 5.6 to 5.4, with Matt Carpenter #1 @ 6.1. And I'm guessing he's still largely a secret amid baseball professionals around the league as well as the typical fan. Guys like Patrick Reusse give Dozier a low mid-season grade, probably because they stop digging around the numbers once they see his batting average. And the counting stats for Dozier relative to his 2nd Base peer group are quite impressive, as well. For one, his bulldogged durability, only Carpenter has "played" all 162 games- Dozier sits at 161 GP. Dozier is easily #1 in HRs with 29, first in XBH with 71, second in Runs (104), second in RBI (80), second in BB (79), 4th in SB (22), 5th in 2Bs with 40. As his big power numbers suggest, he's also first in ISO (.208). [TABLE=class: rgMasterTable, width: 978] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]#[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray]Name[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray]Team[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]G[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]PA[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]HR[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]R[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]RBI[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]SB[/TH] [TH=class: grid_line_breakh rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]BB%[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]K%[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]ISO[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]BABIP[/TH] [TH=class: grid_line_breakh rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]AVG[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]OBP[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]SLG[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]wOBA[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]wRC+[/TH] [TH=class: grid_line_breakh rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]BsR[/TH] [TH=class: grid_line_breakh rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]Off[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]Def[/TH] [TH=class: rgHeader, bgcolor: gray, align: right]WAR[/TH] [TR=class: rgRow, bgcolor: #E5E5E5] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]1[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular]Matt Carpenter[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular][/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]162[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]741[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]8[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]118[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]77[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]4[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right]10.8[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]15.7[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].140[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].354[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right].303[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].382[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].443[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].363[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right][/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right]4.0[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right]32.6[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]1.6[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]6.1[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: rgAltRow] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]2[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular]Robinson Cano[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular][/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]157[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]671[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]14[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]79[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]100[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]9[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right]9.4[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]10.6[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].148[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].362[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right].339[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].401[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].487[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].380[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right][/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right]-0.5[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right]30.8[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]-0.8[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]5.6[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: rgRow] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]3[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular]Brian Dozier[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular][/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]161[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]726[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]29[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]104[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]82[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]22[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right]10.9[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]18.5[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].208[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].271[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right].249[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].338[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].457[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right].349[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right][/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right]7.3[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_break, align: right]25.1[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]1.4[/TD] [TD=class: grid_line_regular, align: right]5.4[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

No solid conclusions, to be sure, just noticing a definite trend, confirmed in his Pitch F/X, and it's a trend that reporters and no doubt, his manager, coaches, teammates and Gibson, himself are fully aware he needs to get a definite handle on.

Or how about Henry Blanco? Retired last year. Or Pudge? They're both only 42 and probably could still go a game a week.

Yup, Fryer once a week, on a day game after night game- basis works for me. Suzuki wears down, or the Twins fall out of contention, Pinto comes back to get more reps, better prepared for major league catching rigors.

Fuldie looks to be fine. Looks like he'll be the 4th OF when/until Santana supplants Escobar, or another injury in the MI (hope Dozier is not serious, but he was definitely grimacing out there after the collision, which BTW, is on Santana, which means it's on Gardy).

Gotcha, Chief. And Spirit/Dave, too. Nice call, Nick.

Based on how many of Pinto's throws end up in CF, he must be inspired by Deduno's wildness.

It's even simpler than that. He can be a decent P2C middling starter without the big K numbers IF he could just maintain his home GB% (58%) on the road (only 49.5%), coupled with a slightly better K% (13.1% @ home vs. 10.6% on the road), he'd be a pretty decent back-end starter. But yeah, a K more per 9 would definitely help. His home/away split is unfathomably schizophrenic: Home: ERA 1.54 FIP 2.95 xFIP 3.91 wOBA .240 GB/FB 2.53 Away: ERA 7.39 FIP 5.08 xFIP 4.95 wOBA .363 GB/FB 1.32

Based on last night's results, it looks like the "marshall" had to get going on a new campaign to demote Pinto today, instead.

Mike Berardino @MikeBerardino · 53m Rob Antony says it can't be ruled out that Fuld could rejoin #mntwins by Friday at Detroit. Hicks could be sent back to MSP for tests.

Mike Berardino @MikeBerardino · 30m Josmil Pinto is 0 for 16 throwing out attempted basestealers. He has 5 errors, 3 passed balls and 6 wild pitches on his watch (18 games).

Mike Berardino @MikeBerardino · 15m Catcher's ERA this year: Josmil Pinto 4.72 Kurt Suzuki: 4.31Run Average (all runs): Pinto: 5.43 Suzuki: 4.40

Yup. And sure, it was only Souhan doing the writing, but I especially liked hearing about his work ethic, how he is goal-oriented and especially how he was cut like a Middleweight champion boxer- which all helps to explain how he hasn't rested on his natural athleticism and has made a big jump in the quality of his stuff- the 98 MPH thing just jumped off the page when I read it, I was under the impression that he was a crafty 91-93 MPH guy.

After last night, Correia has now escaped the bottom of baseball's ERA losers, and Ricky Nolasco is now the Twins worst starter- 5.70 to 5.60. (For the season, Correia has the better FIP by half a run, too, 4.13 to 4.63). And your absolutelly right about the career ERA/FIP correlations. It's now past time for Ricky to step it up, or there's a new thread that needs to be started :s-instagib: