jokin

I have no problem with this. If you know that he'll be back in 7 days or less, of course you don't DL him. But once it gets to that 7 days and there still is no certainty on when he'll return, DL only makes sense. This just in from the Keystone Kops on Day 9 of the Denard Death Watch: http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/166844536.html "Span had an magnetic resonance imaging exam of his neck on Monday, which came back negative. On Tuesday he will have an MRI of his right clavicle. Span injured himself Aug. 12 trying to make a falling catch in center field. He thought he would be ready in a few days, but continues to feel discomfort. The Twins still won't say he's a candidate for the disabled list, but they ordered the exams to make sure nothing more serious is bothering him." TR usually breaks out Antony for the really ridiculous PR fluff that you just can't make up: "Basically we're doing that just to make sure we're not missing anything," Twins assistant general manager Rob Antony said. "We want to rule everything out and give him peace of mind."

Santana made 18 starts in 2003 and went 11-2 with a 2.85 ERA. They don't make the playoffs without him. He was their best starter. He's also the only pitcher they've won a playoff game behind since 1991. As for the Diamond/Radke comp... by the time Radke was Diamond's age he had pitched almost 900 innings in the majors, more than Diamond has thrown in his pro career. I know Diamond is on a nice run but let's look at this in some context... the guy wasn't on a 40-man roster two years ago and last year he couldn't get out hitters in Triple-A at the same age Radke was winning 20 games for the Twins. Diamond's success right now is mostly tied to an elite walk rate, which is out of character with the rest of his career (averaged about 3 BB/9 in the minors). Radke had an elite walk rate his entire career while showing incredible durability with 220 IP almost every season. Radke was the No. 1 pitcher (or "ace," I guess) on some bad pitching staffs, but it wasn't until better pitchers came along to push him down to No. 2/3 that the Twins actually became a legitimate contender. That's basically my point. To me, there's really no point in designating an ace on a bad team. Felix Hernandez? Cliff Lee on multiple bad teams? Steve Carlton on the '72 Phillies.....? ........

Add another reason to reason to watch the last 6 weeks. Hope the secret adjustments with Cuellar have helped Hendy get over the hump. Add Vasquez and Hernandez as SP options when the Red Wings season ends. So much for the Twins "coddle the farm teams in pennant races" mantra.

I pine for the good ole days when Twins Daily would only get hacked by quality spammers like Leeds United fans.

Fine, preferably even to burn a lefty liike Leutge (sic) against a selective lefthander like Mauer in order to invoke a RHP. Again, either poison (Mauer or Willihammer) is potent, esp. in a late relief situation. I'd say the Mariners won this chess game of poison-picking and the Twins were out-thought on the percentages when all they needed was a single: Willingham BA: .258 BA v RHP: .269 BA w/ RISP: .295 BA w/ RISP/2out: .229 Mauer BA: .319 BA v LHP: .308 BA w/ RISP: .353 BA w/ RISP/2out: .413 Luetge OBA v L: .169 OBA w/ RISP: .258 OBA w/ RISP/2out: .167 Wilhelmsen OBA v R: .175 OBA w/ RISP: .175 OBA w/ RISP/2out: .167

See TR... and all you guys that say it's so disruptive to tinker and adjust names with the 40-man, more moves better be coming. By my count, this is now 12 40-man roster moves in-season. And just now, we're finally getting to the 500-lb impotent gorillas, but there's still much more heavy lifting to do to get rid of the bulk of the remaining dead weight.

I'd have no problem with Thielbar getting called up. The question Rantz was asked was about which players have surprised in how well they've played this year, and he started with Thielbar. He did start with Thielbar. But he also reviewed some of the performances at AAA and Slama's name was curious by its absence, given the Twins ML pitching woes.

I'd like to go on record that I'd settle for Honus Wagner.

Of course, with men on Willingham also strikes out 21% of the time and hits .272, whereas Mauer strikes out 14% and hits .335. Willingham is more aggressive and comes up with more XBH, to be sure, but he also makes more outs. I think we can all agree that making an out is a lot more damaging to a rally than walking to first, right? I mean, clearly any time Mauer drew a walk it means he was thrown four balls. I'm sure he could chase more, strike out more, lower his average and maybe increase his power output, but why? Not everyone has to be that type of hitter. The Twins lineup already has guys like that, and there are lots of guys around the league with that approach. Few do what Mauer does as well as he does. I'd argue that nobody does what he does as well. but no one has, as of yet answered the challenge that more often than not: a team's best hitter- with the game literally on the line- who is clearly being pitched around- who presents clearly higher probability of producing than his successor-at-bat- will at least consider swinging at the obligatory 3-0 pitch if it's in the zone (as Luetge's pitch clearly was). Mauer's career stats on 3-0 pitches: PA- 205 BB- 201 BA- .500 (2-4) The last time he swung at a 3-0 pitch and put a BBIP was 2008. His career contact/BB rate on 3-0 is 2.9%. There are 4MLB players with OBP over .400 from 2009-12 and their stats on 3-0: Joey Votto OBP 426/PA 94/BA 750/SLG 1500/BB 86 Votto was 6-8 (9.3% contact/BB rate) when successfully swinging and putting BBIP Miguel Cabrera OBP 416/PA 122/BA 500/SLG 1000/BB 116 Cabrera was 3-6 (5.2% contact/BB rate) when successfully swinging and putting BBIP. Joe Mauer OBP 410/PA 92/BA 000/SLG 000/BB 92 Mauer was 0-0 (0% contact/BB rate). Prince Fielder OBP 408/PA 163/BA 444/SLG 1444/BB 154 Fielder was 4/9 (5.8% contact/BB rate) when successfully swinging and putting BBIP.

Leutge is a lefty.

When asked about AAA RP options for call-up on Sunday, Rantz was spoke loudly in his silence, concerning Slama. Caleb Thielbar was the guy he went out of his way to heap praise upon, he has made a metoriic rise through the org. and it's not beyond the realm of possibility that he gets the flip, instead.

And that's fine. I don't think anyone here was entirely happy with the result. All I'm arguing is that Joe Mauer became a .325 hitter with a .400 OBP by playing the game a certain way. If he saw the pitch he wanted to hit, I'm positive he would have swung at it. Did he get fooled on one or more of those called strikes? It's possible. The guy certainly isn't perfect. I think people make too much of one AB. There are other times where Joe has come up big late in games and helped the team win. Sometimes, his strategy works. Sometimes, it doesn't. More often than not, it's going to be a more successful strategy than what most other hitters bring to the box. This time it didn't pan out. Against Aroldis Chapman a month or two ago, it did. That's just the game of baseball. "This time it didn't pan out". Wait a minute, what I've been reading here on this thread was that it did pan out. "Against Aroldis Champan a month or two ago, it did." A great at AB, one of the best this year, seriously, I was in awe of that battle for days afterward. And it actually involved removing the bat from his shoulder. It didn't pan out in the sense that, I assume Joe didn't get the pitch he was sitting on, unlike against Chapman. I think Joe hits the ball often enough to give him the benefit of the doubt that he generally know a good pitch to hit. It did pan out in the sense that he kept the inning alive for a player with a .913 OPS. But, flail away if you prefer. No flailing on my part. As I stated when I first posted Christensen's article last night, I am right in the middle on this one. Joe wasn't having a good night at the plate going into the last AB. He has a certain way of going about his business, his business is getting on base and for him, business is always good, even when he is in a short term slump. For how Mauer generally approaches this situation, he did his job and I get where he's coming from. But to insist that Mauer's walk=Mastroianni's walk (which immediately preceded Joe's) is not a credible assertion- there were two very hittable pitches in his AB and having your best hitter taking a chance at swinging on one of them to win the game is arguably a pretty good strategy, in this case, the obligatory strike, low-middle, on the 3-0 count was the pitch that most team's best hitters would likely not pass up with the game literally on the line. The other side in this debate argues that a walk is as good as a hit, therefore, things did pan out for Mauer, as he maintained his precious OBP average and did his job in loading the bases by which the potential lead run was now only 90 feet away. Mauer continues to maintain his lofty averages by sticking to what has always worked for him, but then things didn't pan out- for the team (not saying Mauer is selfish, it's just who he is and how he does things). To pretend that the other point of view has no merit at all and isn't worth consideration is just a little close-minded on their part. It certainly appears that Seattle had a plan about the scenario as well, and with Willingham struggling recently, having a tough righty ready to go in Wilhelmsen, and given Mauer's virtual MLB-best-average Lefty/Lefty split, they may have felt the odds were in their favor by not giving Mauer much to hit and defying the "walk is as good as a hit" thinking.

Joe Mauer.

Does that include today's nice 2-4 showing?

Luke Hughes without the accent?

Seth, have you had a chance to see him field his position? Am I safe in assuming he projects higher than Luke Hughes in the field, but perhaps not as high at the plate? It's always great when a local prospect has a chance to contribute somewhere down the road. If he hasn't already, is there any chance he could crack your prospect rankings?

I was looking at his numbers the other day after noticing that he is virtually on no one's prospect lists. It's interesting that his hitting has really come around big since June 1. I didn't write them down, but I recall a .313BA with around an .800 OPS, with the most recent numbers even higher (.330BA/.820OPS) since the All-Star break. He wasn't mentioned by Rantz today, but you have to think if they can rid themselves of Nishi this offseason that he has earned a shot at at least some consideration for the AAA 2B spot if he can field the spot anywhere close to that level. I guess the question remains, how often do guys successfully transition defensively in this direction? Probably not very many.

Do you think both of them get to Ft. Myers next season? Last player I remember (dont remember many others) that essentially skipped Beloit was Rene Tosoni, who was 20 yrs old when he had a good but not spectacular yr in ELIZ. With the logjam of OFs that should be in BEL (or Cedar Rapids:)), who do you think could be that guy to get to Ft Myers?? Berrios would not be eligible, would he, as bein from Puerto Rico?? 1) Trying to be diplomatic here, but seriously, are there more than maybe 5 core guys at Fort Myers this year that would be missed by anyone if they were all sent packing at season's end, en masse? 2) Kepler is young, but he has been with the club for, I believe, at least 3 years now. Berrios thus far has admittedly been pitching like a recent senior grad- that is, a college senior, he clearly is embarassingly overmatching Rookie Level ball. Is there any reason why these two shouldn't be in Fort Myers next year? 3) The OF logjam would take care of itself if the Twins start the dominoes tumbling at the top with a trade or two to bolster the pitching. Dump the Tosoni-level and lower OFers from Fort Myers on up and there is plenty of room to place that logjam. One of the logjammers might even make a nice sweetener in getting a deal done for more pitching. 4) I don't know the rules on the AFL, but is it possible they follow the draft rules and consider Puerto Rico "domestic territory" as Puerto Ricans are eligible for the draft as "domestic" players?

How about a side order of MMM Stew?- (Mansihp (sp)/Marquis/Maloney) with a Tyler Roberston apertif? These are still other pitchers on the worst staff in baseball that the FO has, or continues to deem, MLB-worthy.

And that's fine. I don't think anyone here was entirely happy with the result. All I'm arguing is that Joe Mauer became a .325 hitter with a .400 OBP by playing the game a certain way. If he saw the pitch he wanted to hit, I'm positive he would have swung at it. Did he get fooled on one or more of those called strikes? It's possible. The guy certainly isn't perfect. I think people make too much of one AB. There are other times where Joe has come up big late in games and helped the team win. Sometimes, his strategy works. Sometimes, it doesn't. More often than not, it's going to be a more successful strategy than what most other hitters bring to the box. This time it didn't pan out. Against Aroldis Chapman a month or two ago, it did. That's just the game of baseball. "This time it didn't pan out". Wait a minute, what I've been reading here on this thread was that it did pan out. "Against Aroldis Champan a month or two ago, it did." A great at AB, one of the best this year, seriously, I was in awe of that battle for days afterward. And it actually involved removing the bat from his shoulder.

The 3 hole is supposed to be for your best hitters and your best hitters are not the ones who swing the bat just to swing the bat. Would you rather have Mauer switch to Delmon young's plate approach? Mauer did bat 2nd for this game... Batted 2nd on Friday, Gardy got confused. Joe back to his normal #3 spot on Saturday and today.

You just don't follow Gardy close enough Lev, I heard him say so himself last night at around 1AM, he simply couldn't pitch Perkins last night in the 9th- he HAD to have him available for today...

---Me too, and so would any rational fan. The Milton Bradley routine of daily tantrums gets old pretty quick. I looked it up. This wildly veering and swerving "extremes approach" to making a counter-point is the NHS-certified 2nd most likely cause of whiplash.

One year too soon for Kepler/Berrios? Rantz praised both of them during the interview today. (Although, curiously enough, he admitted never seeing Berrios pitch...wait, what?)

of course, Im goin by Span being dealt & Revere moving to CF. If I had to give a percentage, Id say it's still 65% he is in ROC with Hicks/Benson/Tosoni to start the year...meaning they wont sign any retread FA OFs. Knowing the Twins, they will start the season with Matt Carson in RF & Arcia becoming fulltime in mid May when MN realizes why Carson is a 32yr old who's never made it. Im hoping Arcia DOES get a Sept recall & does well so that both he & Parmellee are full time starters in 2013 Sounds like Arcia is going to get the usual Twins rope-a-dope. FWIW, listening to Rantz interviewed by Atterberry in the pregame show. When asked about the AA guys getting the September call-up, Rantz essentially said that the AAA guys were far more likely to be called. His only acknowledgement of AA position guys was Hicks (praised him, deservedly so), but apparently no call-up there either, Rantz said they're working on placing Hicks in Latin American Winter Ball somewhere. Can Arcia play Arizona?