Thegrin

You watch. Rosario will hit at every level. Especially the majors. He will be a steady Twins contributor for quite a few years.

Smoak has had more at bats than Parmalee and they both have a lot more at bats than Colabello. Why would we want a used and mostly unsuccessful 1B?

Luke Hochevar - They've run out of patience

Butera pitched better than this: [TABLE=class: pitching_data] [TD=class: player_name]Manuel Soliman (L, 1-6)[/TD] 2.0 4 6 5 3 1 3 6.23 [/TABLE]

I think I'd rather have a Twins pitcher give up 5 runs and pitch 7+ innings than have a Twins pitcher give up 3 runs and pitch 5 innings.

Methinks Pelfrey is going to give us another long night.

The coach's looked at Bert's curve ball and said, "OMG. Can't nobody hit that ball." and his fastball and control warn't too shabby either

Besides climate/racial diversity/playoff potential/teammates/manager , reasons for signing for less money are diverse. -Where you lived while growing up. -Where you went to college. -Where your wife and/or girlfriend grew up. -Where you want to raise your kids -Big City vs smaller city (This is important to both country boys and city slickers) -Endorsement opportunities. -State taxes/City taxes -Stadium (pitchers ballpark/hitters ballpark) -Past experience -Some other reason To support this idea, many have suggested that Phil Hughes might want to leave the Yankees and play in Minnesota because Target Field suits his style of pitching, better than the new Yankee Stadium. We could also promote the idea that our defense is excellent and our bullpen is outstanding. How much of a dollar difference would the offers have to be for a player to play in a less than friendly environment? The Twins could say,"We'll pay you x million dollars. The Yankees ,If they want him, can always say, "We'll pay you a million dollars more." If the Yankees were not willing to pay the extra million, would we be getting a bargain ? I think not.

Liriano was a crazy-maker. You have to watch him with your eyes closed to keep your sanity. I love ground balls and double plays. I hate high-ball pitchers like Baker. Strikeouts are fine if they don't lead to elevated pitch counts. Otherwise, they are overrated. The best thing Liriano did was when he sped up his game... but as soon as he hit a rough patch he slowed down again. He was a heart-break waiting to happen last year.

1 KC 1 game Won 0 of 1 2-4 Hou 3 games Won 3 of 3 5-7 KC 3 games Won 1 of 3 9-11 Chi 3 games Won 3 of 4 12-14 Cle 3 games Won 1 of 3 The Twins 8 of 14 to start the month. If we win 8 more games this month, we have a good chance of winning 75 games or better. 15-18 Chi 4 games 20-22 Det 3 games 23-25 Cle 3 games 27-29 KC 3 games 30-31 Tex 2 games

Would you DFA these pitchers and risk losing them for nothing in return ? The current rotation Correia - Yes (Please someone take his salary off the books) Pelfrey - No (If he is willing to sign a reasonable contract) Deduno - NO (He'd be snatched up immediately) Gibson - NO (He's our future) Albers - NO (This season won't cement his place in the rotation) Sent back to AAA Worley - NO (Has he recovered from his surgery?) Diamond - NO (Can he be the 2012 Diamond again?) Walters - Maybe (I'm not convinced he is a hopeless starter) Hendriks - No (He's young and absolutely deserves a full shot) Hernandez - No (He was semi-marginal when with the Twins) Comeback player Kyle Davies - Yes (Doing well in AA New Britain but I think he will sneak thru) Current relievers - (All these should be given a chance during spring training) Swarzak - No Duensing - No Pressly - No Injured and rehabbing DeVries - Yes ( I think he might sneak thru and we could sign him to a minor league contract) Blackburn - Yes (although I would try and sign him to a minor league contract) This is 16 pitchers we could have in spring training, trying to win one of 5 spots in the rotation or 2/3 spots in long relief. They have each done something to deserve a chance. Some are trying to gain ML status or, because of injuries, they are essentially new pitchers. There is a high probability that, at the end of 2014, 3 or 4 of the above pitchers will finish the season as established starters. We will be able to expect each of the 3/4 pitchers from the 2014 rotation to have 50%+ quality starts in 2015. If they do that, the Twins will have a .500+ record in 2015. Also we should be able to add Meyer/May and a wildcard into the mix for 2015. If Ryan brings in someone new in 2014, they better be good and give us 55%+ Quality Starts for 2014. Think about it... Would you DFA these pitchers and risk losing them for nothing in return ?

Doumit will stay. Despite his batting average, he was the 2nd best hitter (after Mauer) since Willingham went on the DL. If Ramirez is DFA'd and someone picks him up, it is less of a loss than Mastro. Colabello has shown us nothing. Lets use the AB on Parmalee, who is younger and has more potential. If Hicks doesn't show a huge improvement in the next few weeks, I see know reason to bring Hicks back. What happens to Gibson's ML roster spot if they shut Gibson down? Can they disable him ? Will we have to go with just 24 players until September ? Can they send him down to Rochester without affecting his options ? Deduno's injury and delayed start may affect the rest of the season. If Deduno has a dead arm, he will probably give us 2 or 3 more difficult outings like the last 2 before we will see the real Deduno. Once they "get it" , sometimes pitchers pitch better in the majors than they do in the minors Maybe that will be the case with Diamond and Hendricks.

Great report. Thank you. Since you've had a chance to see Pinto several times. I'd like to know what you think of him.

Of course the Twins should take a run at a Cuban defector that plays OF/1B/DH. Break the bank for him. Its not as though we don't have any highly rated prospects to fill those positions.

1. I was very disappointed in today's loss to Cleveland. We got an OK start from Gibson. We got some hits with RISP. We had a 4 run lead. Our bullpen let us down. After a few hours of moping about, I realized that this is really a reason to be happy. The bullpen has been so consistently good, that I have come to rely on it to win these kind of games. When the starters allow runs, I accept the loss. When the hitters don't hit with RISP, I accept the loss. If we lose a game because of sloppy defense or sloppy base running I am frustrated, but I know they don't do it often. However, the bullpen has been our rock and losing this game was a blow. The bullpen has been steady and dependable and wins games. It is disconcerting when the bullpen allows runs. We can only hope it doesn't become a regular occurrence. A one game failure of the bullpen is depressing, but it points to one of the things the Twins do well and is something to build on. 2. Since the Twins are losing more than they win, I would rather be an optimist and be wrong, than a cynic "realist" and be right. We still have 44 games to play. If we win half of them we will have had a significantly improved season over 2012. We have a weak schedule with a lot of games in the Central division. It could happen. We shouldn't kiss this season off until its over. 3. Players improve. Sometimes, sending a player to AAA improves them (Bill Lee). Pelfrey, Worley, Diamond, Blackburn and Hendriks all had injuries/surgeries. You can't predict a player until they have completely recovered from their injury/surgery. This is the recovery year for all these players. All these players have shown ability to be major league starters. We started the 2013 season with a rotation full of question marks. We will probably start the 2014 season the same way, with much the same cast, unless Deduno, Albers or somebody shows consistency over the rest of the season. That does not mean we are doomed. 4. I wish the Twins organization would be known for pitchers that pitch quickly like Albers. Maybe he will be an example to the rest of the staff.

3 innings and 32 pitches. Very good.

and nobody will remember in a month or a year or until some other rookie does something similar. A complete game no-hitter is the standard of excellence and is referred to many times for many reasons. Since this was not a no-hitter, it belongs in the "nice game" category.

Minnesota Twins Affiliates Scoreboard | MiLB.com Scoreboard | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball above is the link to the games in the minors today. No Rochester game?

I wish there was a :tongue in cheek: smiley.

The same can be said for Diamond and Hendriks. Look closely at the other thread on this subject. There NO FA pitchers coming available that are good enough to lead the Twins. The Twins are going to have to figure it out with what we have got already... or maybe TR can make another "Minor Signing".

Remember the "Soul Patrol"? They were pretty solid for a couple years. Lawton had a couple good years for Cleveland after he left us, but Jacques Jones never could hit NL pitching. Of course, we all know what Torrii Hunter has done since he left us. Who were they replaced by ? Delmon through trade and Span and Revere came up through the organization. Now we are rebuilding again, but without a Hunter type to ease the transition. I don't know how anyone can say TR can't assemble a winning roster when you look closely at the transitions. Lest people forget, unprecedented injuries to the Twins starters led to the Twins downfall in 2011. Scott Baker went down. Pavano went down. Slowey went down. Blackburn went down. Perkins went down. Liriano was wildly inconsistent. We had injuries to Mauer and Morneau and Span, as well. Nobody could have planned for such a total collapse. Nobody.

Were these signings on Terry Ryan's watch ? I always thought they were.

and don't forget James Beresford, who is only 24 years old and has a combined AA & AAA BA of .306 for 2013. He played for Australia in the WBP. 2013 Season [TABLE=class: grid, width: 500, align: center] [TABLE=class: dataTableClass][TR=class: headerRow] [TD=align: center]Team [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [TD=align: center][/TD] [/TABLE] [/TD] League Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS[/TR] NBR Eas .316 45 158 21 50 5 0 0 19 55 14 22 5 0 .373 .348 .721 ROC Int .293 41 133 25 39 3 1 0 12 44 13 22 4 0 .362 .331 .693 [/TD][TD] .306 86 291 46 89 8 1 0 31 99 27 44 9 0 .368 .340 .708 [/TABLE]

I wonder why Hicks was sitting ?