Thrylos

No. When he is hurt he flinches. No flinching. Just lack of much movement in general...

Quick: Who had a higher OPS for the Twins in '88? Brunansky or Herr?

Wonder if you will say this after he posts a 9-13 record with a 4.56 ERA this season

Not sure if he is finished or not (and I hope he is not so he would bring something back come July) but what really bugged me about Willingham this Spring was the total lack or effort and general nonchalantness. The last thing this team needs...

I don't know about that, but first base is taken for a while for the Twins. Parmelee is 26 and still needs some work at the field. If I were the Twins, I would play him every day alternating between LF and RF. Just think that it does not make sense to take the glove out of a 26 year old. Koskie was a bigger butcher in Parmelee's age.

Reynaldo Rodriguez will likely be part of a 1B/OF rotation as well. He is 28, I hardly see him in New Britain again. Kinda disappointing as a matter of fact that only Danny Ortiz remains in the organization from the 2013 Rock Cats' OF.

'94 on. Terry Ryan methodically dismantling the championship squad that Macphail built, with the zenith (or nadir , depending on how you look at it) being the contraction time.

I was not surprised about this decision, based on what Gardehire has been talking about all Spring, but when I first heard about it I was disappointed, esp. vis-a-vis Antony's comments about performing and winning jobs in ST. And then the more I thought about it, the more I do not mind it. And I wrote the reasons here. I am really ok with it. We are talking about the 24th man (remember the last roster spot is between Colabello and a potential waiver wire pick up) and none of the others who were cut (other than maybe Danny Santana, but that is another long, and philosophical, discussion) did anything to win a spot with the team this Spring. Matter of fact, Presley did everything to lose his job, and he did. Deservedly.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- ...and has nothing to do with nostalgia. The Twins have been busy trying to finalize their 25 man roster, this week, the last of Spring Training, and unless you are lucky enough to vacation to a remote island away from mobile phones and the Internets, you would know by now that there was a waiver wire frenzy that had two Twins without options (Chris Parmelee and Scott Diamond) passing through waivers unclaimed and assigned to Rochester (with Diamond sleeping on whether he will accept the assignment or not and become a free agent) and a third (Alex Presley of Justin Morneau trade fame) getting claimed by the Astros. While frantically counting bodies to see who might be the backup Centerfielder in the squad, the Twins' Communications Director, Dustin Morse gave the answer on twitter: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ABl3HGy40K8/UzU6W8QqQ8I/AAAAAAAAAPc/pJRtzESVDeQ/s1600/Bartlett.png That conclusion was there, just by looking at who remained after the waiver activity, and in addition to Jason Bartlett it seems that Chris Colabello, who had a terrific Spring Training, also made the team. However, unlike with Bartlett, no official announcements have been made about Colabello (who does have 2 years of minor league options remaining) and since yesterday the Twins have 2 open 40-man roster spots, even if you include Kubel and Bartlett, which they might use to pick someone from the waiver wire and promote to the 25-man roster. I really have mixed feelings about Bartlett making the team. I did not like the idea that the Twins gave minor league contracts to both Kubel and Bartlett, mainly because I thought that both of them had their best years well behind and, like when they traded a Hamburger to the Rangers for Yesterday Eddie, the Twins were signing the ghosts of Jasons past. And Bartlett had a horrible Spring on paper and did not get any better when I was down there and saw him in person. His appearances on the plate made me think that he would have hard time making contact from a tee and allowed me to make snide in game remarks like this and this. But something changed yesterday. On one hand I still do not think that he is in shape to help the team with his bat, but it is not the end of the world and he might actually do help the team. Why is that? First of all, to make it clear. It is not because of nostalgia. If you have been reading this blog for a while, by now you should know that I think that one of the darkest seasons in the Twins' history was the smallball team of 2006, which lost all 3 of its postseason games, despite the facts that it had both the AL MVP and the AL Cy Young and it was the favorite to win it all. Dark times for the Twins, Gardy's piranhas and all, and Bartlett was part of the problem in my book. It is not even because I think that Florimon probably will not be ready to begin the season and Bartlett might provide insurance. I already think that the Twins have a very capable shortstop (other than Florimon) who should be starting and is due for a break through season. It is because of this. I really disliked the vibe I got from the Twins when I was down in Fort Myers, especially as far as effort goes, and I wrote about it in detail, predicting that it will be the downfall of the Twins this season. But Barlett actually gave it all this Spring. Inability to make contact or not. He was fine on the field as well, he was always with a smile on his face, including when he made that catch at Centerfield (I was sitting at the new OF seats right above him practically) and he looked like he had fun playing the game like a kid. I think that the Twins can use this kind of energy right now, despite the fact that the Bartlett as a major leaguer experiment might be short-lived. So, sarcasm aside, I am warming up to the idea... http://mlb.mlb.com/assets/images/1/1/2/68265112/cuts/bartlett_guerrier_kubel_720_m23hhvfe_gl3g5vm8.jpg

Just 'cause: http://usatthebiglead.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/77829825.jpg http://theloungeisback.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/killebrew.jpg http://cdn.sportsmemorabilia.com/sports-product-image/1-t413374-500.jpg

Love that move for the Twins. This takes care of Cabrera's age 31 to 41 seasons. Also he has vesting options for his age 42 and 43 seasons. And this is not a player who will age well... Think Mo Vaughn and Ryan Howard. Just love it.

Doumit was mostly a DH. I would rather see them play Arcia more than Parmelee at RF where he belonged because Arcia is a better player. I would love to see Parmelee over Willingham but for that to happen he would have needed to be traded and that ship sailed 2 off-seasons ago.

http://blog.fivefoldministryschool.com/wp-content/tmp/steve-lombardozzi-twins-i19.jpg

And Duensing can hit 94/95 mph, Diamond, not so much.

IMHO, pretty arrogant statement by Diamond, which is not backed up by his production, but very typical of him. Two Spring Trainings ago, a few days after he was cut from the MLB camp, I saw him ignore two children who were politely asking for autographs by the back fields. That is inexcusable divaism in my book and behavior like that just does not happen there. Good riddance. Hope he signs with the Yankees.

And Diamond is put through waivers as well... I definitely see a difference there in the last 2-3 seasons, starting with Gibson's draft. We shall see how it turns out. On the other hand, if you look at the Tigers and the Red Sox, they had only 2 pitchers they drafted in their rotation last season, the Dodgers had one. There is so much player movement these days, that it is hard to have a rotation of 5 drafted players...

That quotation should come with an asterisk that reads: (*) Unless they are smart alekses like Slowey, Breslow and Dickey or named Liriano, Worley, Neshek, Garza, Lohse or something like that.

Haney who? Chris Haney retired in 2002

That's more like "Bluffda"

This makes about as much sense as the Liriano trade.

He was added on the 40 man roster...

They boycotted most of them last season, so that would not be much different...

Kinda hard to make my mind about who I would rather have at Rochester's rotation: Virgil Vasquez or Vance Worley? What do you all think?

Not at all. Had they claimed him, he would have had to be on their 40-man roster. Now he doesn't

Nah. How about this guy: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/attachments/ootp-mods-rosters-photos-quick-starts/316535d1386987555-gambo-t_wil1-photopack-billy-consolo-1961tv2.jpg