jokin

Did it look serious? No, it looked a little clumsy. How many watching the play immediately thought: "Span day-to-day for 10 days and then, Parmelee gets the call-up"?

I was sarcastic in my response to your question, but it can't be emphasized enough how good the Rays are at what they do. They play in a horrible park in a horribly indifferent to baseball (finished last, or next to last, in attendance in 7 of the last 10 years) market while trying to compete in the best division in baseball- and have put together a pretty decent track record in the W-L department despite what they're up against. As I've said for years, raiding their scouting/player development departments for talent should be as much a priority as finding players.

It seems like he might have a little something in his background about playing catcher?

The Rays are a great organization and have done a fantastic job at almost every level. But remember that their success is recent. They had a decade of picking in the top five every season. During that same period, the Twins rarely drafted higher than 15th. I'm not discounting the Rays' success but the real test will be their player development on the guys they draft when they had to pick 20th or later in the draft every June. Since Price was taken with the first overall pick in 2007, Tampa Bay has not had a drafted player contribute to their major league team. Not entirely unexpected but still something to consider. I think it was the TV guys who mentioned coming into this series that the Rays take pride in developing their own and that they were on a streak of 234 consecutive games starting their own signed players.

they've also focused on it...their regular lineup hasnt always been the greatest. Pieced the lineup together for the most part over their run....Crawford/Longo are/were ALL Stars, but other than that Madden has shown his brilliance by putting pieces together. But...but...managers make virtually no difference to the W-L record.../s(n)arc

Yes.

Jason Marquis has allowed 26 hits and 11 BB in 26 innings for the Padres, good for a WHIP of 1.405. He still isn't striking anyone out. His ERA is a mirage. He'll be right back to NL-level mediocrity in no time. The mirage continues (just a little while longer, anyway) as the Marquis numbers continue to confound: WHIP 1.195 ERA 3.66 http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/po...-marquis-event Great article just out tonight on Marquis, with the money quote: "One of the reliably entertaining things about baseball is that pitchers you think are done -- because they must be done, must have absolutely nothing left in the tank whatsoever -- surprise you, because they don’t really agree with what you or I think. They’d rather keep giving it a go, and whether you want to celebrate small sample sizes, selective situations or honest-to-god comebacks, they make it happen. Enter Jason Marquis stage right, a perfect example of why -- to quote with former Cardinals ace Joaquin Andujar’s “favorite word” -- with pitchers youneverknow. With Saturday night’s two-hit shutout of the Pirates, Marquis provided yet another reminder that as long as someone is still willing to let you play, you have a chance to make your career a going concern." "Using Bill James’ fast and fun metric, Game Score, Marquis’ start grades as an 86 against the Pirates, which ties exactly with a career-best mark he’s achieved three times before, for three different teams: in 2005 for the Cardinals against the Nationals; in 2007 for the Cubs against the Pirates; and in 2009 for the Rockies against the Dodgers. Matching that with the Padres makes Marquis four-for-four in personal excellence in different team togs, which is perhaps no surprise since Marquis’ career has featured so many resurrections that it’s an open question over who envies him more, cats or zombies." This is why I advocated hitting the waiver wire for DFA-available potential SPs available to bolster the Twins, "trying out" for the Twins on the releasing team's dime, rather than the strictly in-house approach- which included a pitcher with virtually no shot as anything but a spot-starter at most, like Duensing. I am not aware if anyone else found someone as bottom-of the-barrel as Marquis was- who then turned it around at all, but for any claimed retreads that don't work out, they get released at essentially no cost.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/27902/an-inning-munchers-marquis-event Great article on Marquis, with the money quote: "One of the reliably entertaining things about baseball is that pitchers you think are done -- because they must be done, must have absolutely nothing left in the tank whatsoever -- surprise you, because they don’t really agree with what you or I think. They’d rather keep giving it a go, and whether you want to celebrate small sample sizes, selective situations or honest-to-god comebacks, they make it happen. Enter Jason Marquis stage right, a perfect example of why -- to quote with former Cardinals ace Joaquin Andujar’s “favorite word” -- with pitchers youneverknow. With Saturday night’s two-hit shutout of the Pirates, Marquis provided yet another reminder that as long as someone is still willing to let you play, you have a chance to make your career a going concern." "Using Bill James’ fast and fun metric, Game Score, Marquis’ start grades as an 86 against the Pirates, which ties exactly with a career-best mark he’s achieved three times before, for three different teams: in 2005 for the Cardinals against the Nationals; in 2007 for the Cubs against the Pirates; and in 2009 for the Rockies against the Dodgers. Matching that with the Padres makes Marquis four-for-four in personal excellence in different team togs, which is perhaps no surprise since Marquis’ career has featured so many resurrections that it’s an open question over who envies him more, cats or zombies." This is why I advocated hitting the waiver wire for DFA-available potential SPs available to bolster the Twins, "trying out" for the Twins on the releasing team's dime, rather than the strictly in-house approach- which included a pitcher with virtually no shot as anything but a spot-starter at most, like Duensing. The claimed retreads don't work out, they get released at essentially not cost.

2 out of 6 quality starts after that (w/ 4 dreadful ones) and then he was gone soon after the Cole DeVries-like 8 ER batting-practice performance in 1.2 innings against Milwaukee. Seems like the Twins have gone full circle. Since joining the Padres, 8/13 QS- good to be back in the NL and Petco Park!

sure.....no Rick Anderson telling him to quicken up his pace 13gms for SD 83.2IP 79h 34er (3.66ERA) 70k (7.5/9) 21bb 10hr's We make light of it, but this really is inexplicable. Was there an underlying medical issue, philosophical difference, mechanical adjustment? How does a pitcher go from possibly delivering the worst SP performance by a starter in the opening 2 months to practically a reliable #3 starter with only a team change to account for obvious difference?

I missed your post, but everything I'm reading, plus the early results tend to justify the early ranking.

If they convert Zack Jones to a starter successfully and he continues to develop a solid third pitch, I bet you'll change that. He is actually one of the 3-4 Twins' pitchers with higher upside than Gibson. I know it's early, but when does Berrios earn being in the mix of consideration as a top 3-4 pitching prospect/high upside guy and possible top 10 member? After A ball success next season?

Well, given that Blackie's game-ERA was 6.00, that actually lowered his ERA to 7.33, so technically Gardy is cheering on the obvious improvement...and that 2.00 WHIP rate gave the infield extra double play practice. With the 3 dingers given up tonight, Blackie also vaulted himself into the HR/9 lead among starters, now standing at 2.18/9I. So yes, a quality start all the way around.

Mauer and Willingham aren't doing all that much better: Last 4 games: Mauer 3/14 .214 Willingham 3/15 .200 Revere 2/18 .111 Last 10 games: Mauer 8/36 .222 Willingham 5/34 .147 Revere 15/45 .333

I'm surprised no one has commented on Revere's assist at 2B. I know it's baby step improvement, but still an impressive throw compared to previous attempts.

Those are nice to watch and it's a big improvement on last season. Of course, the Twins must be near or at the top in DP opportunities, too.

he got the out!...trying to stay positive...

I'll try this one, for tonight, Nishi is more valuable to the Twins than Blackie, only because he's planted in the dugout. How about worse than either of these two, Blackie getting his contract raise next year to $5.5M?

I'd leave almost everyone off that list for now. Hermsen hasn't even pitched in Triple-A, while Hernandez and Hirschfeld (seriously? Hirschfeld?) have had zero success there. These aren't top-flight prospects that you simply throw directly into an MLB rotation. Just because you haven't seen a guy before doesn't mean he's better than what you have. Plus, with the exception of Hendriks and Hernandez, none of those players are on the 40-man roster. When I suggested trying Duensing in the rotation, it was simply because he was readily available and has had success as an MLB starter in the past, and at the time the Twins were trotting out Swarzak and Blackburn. That doesn't mean I think he's a viable long-term option or that I'm "continuing to insist that he's starting material" – amusing statements coming from a person accusing others of being ignorant and not taking the time to track down and accurately recap past conversations. For you, not the "friend" you are defending, I will be happy to take the time to research, track down and get back to you with the specific quotes. Speaking of the use of accusatorial misquoting, if you aspire to professional writing, you need to discern the difference and context between "ignorance" and "ignorant". The word I used was ignorance and the use of "ignorance" on my part was in reference to the other poster's unawareness of a subject matter, not "ignorant" as a perjorative. Big difference. I know a lot of times guys in your position (I'm not saying you have done it) like to be in print holding different positions on the same subject- with the ability to then link back to when what they wrote then shows how smart they are. Because you're better than that, that's why I'm surprised that you backed off from the correct position in this round. As stated, I didn't expect you to "know" that Diamond should have been in the rotation from the start, in that vein, I'm saying let's find out more about what we don't know, continuing what the Twins were already doing. Just sayin'. Meanwhile, nothing has changed regarding the Dunce from what you wrote previously in 2011. He's demonstrated further in 2012 that he is perfect in a role as a lefty reliever. This is a lost season. It has to be a lost season when the Twins were forced to trot out Diamond, Walters, DeVries and Deduno. Were any one of these "top flight prospects that you simply throw into an MLB rotation"? Of course not. Nothing was lost by trotting these guys out and it's likely nothing will be lost by trotting out others (Hendriks is working on certain issues and his emotional fragility may or may not be a special case). There was no argument I proposed that they are "better" on a game-by-game basis, just that it generally makes perfect sense to start a guy for spot duty like Duensing- if you're in the playoff hunt or early in the season when things are unsettled- his move out of the bullpen was a "pick your poison" move as it was disruptive to a Twins area of some success- and did little-to-nothing at bolstering the SP situation- all the while wrecking what was a really nice season that Duensing was putting together. Here are his stats before beginning his SP duties in late June: 34.2 IP/WHIP 1.03/ERA 2.33/K-BB 22-8. His total numbers since the change: 38 IP/WHIP 1.69/ERA 7.11/K-BB 17-8. I think it's entirely fair to say anyone on my list had a shot at matching or besting these numbers, with further experience and knowledge of personnel added to the equation. Here are the entire season totals for the Twins RP staff cumulatively: OBA .246/WHIP 1.28/ERA 3.79/K-BB% 16.8. And here is the July stat set for the RPs: OBA .282/WHIP 1.54/ERA 4.75/K-BB% 15.5 Of course, the bullpen fall-down isn't entirely related to Duensing's absence, but the numbers tell a good part of the story. To reiterate, the Twins outcome for this season has been settled for quite some time, the biggest accomplishment left for the Twins to achieve during the remainder of the year and going into the off-season, is finding and identifying guys in positions of need- a key component is starting next year's SP "cattle call" ASAP. The 40-man roster argument holds little water, as well. By my count, the Twins have moved NINE guys onto the 40-man during the season. This includes 5 pitchers, including 3 of 4 mentioned above. They too, were all "readily available" as the Twins demonstrated, as are the guys I proposed. There is plenty of detritus that the Twins can Waive and/or DFA, without consequence, as demonstrated with every previous cut this year, they likely won't get claimed- or won't be missed- or won't be here next year anyway. (Tosoni, Gray, "seriously"?)

As I said, you butchered his viewpoint to support your own and were unwilling to provide proof of your exaggerated claims because they didn't exist. You were asked nicely to cease and desist. Geez. There were no exaggerated claims, there was no butchering of Nick's viewpoint, the debate regarding Dunce's role happened from the time Duensing was moved into the starting role, I questioned Nick's assertion that Dunce would be fine as a SP and asked Nick at the time to defend it. Feel free to check the dates when he became a SP and then search the TD archives. It isn't up to me to provide you footnotes, you are wasting everyone's time and providing nothing but white noise to this particular thread.

BJ Hermsen with a Twins Way (p-to-c) complete game victory.

At least we found Slama. Back in Roc, 1 IP 0 R 3K. More Manship and Perdomo

Huh? I think you are missing the point.

20% more would put him just south of 200 innings, but they would be prudent to shut him down at no more than 194/200 or even less. Right now, even only with his small window of success, until a trade or FA acquisition happens, he's the arm with the highest hopes heading into 2013.

What about the Scott Boras factor? The Twins were far from the only team to take a pass to avoid that guy.