Thrylos

Totally not surprised with Montanez; back in January when I looked at the Twins' organization starters in the minors, he was one of the top ones. Also he is a lefty and that helps. He would have been in E-town last season, other than the fact that the Twins were stretching him to make the jump to a starter and that kind stuff happens better at Fort Myers for several reasons. Not sure what his role will be with Cedar Rapids, but it is really encouraging for the Twins to promote their best pitchers.

Allegedly Escobar has been working with Brunansky during the ST to shorten his swing and attack more the ball. I got to see him take BP in ST and during a few ST games and he was hitting decent double power line drives in about a quarter of his PAs. I think he still has room for improvement with the stick. I've heard a lot of raves from the mainstream media about his defense as well. Florimon is definitely a better defensive player (as a SS) but his hitting needs lots of work.

For some reason the Twins love Clete Thomas. As far as I am concerned, I'd rather have them cut him and bring up Evan Bigley to play LF and move Boggs to CF.

Burton was not available. Why Perkins was not in there is the better question... I believe that Robertson will be ok, but the timing of this post is very unfortunate...

Last season, I started a Random Twins Thoughts series that included a post a week every Tuesday. I was told that people actually liked those and missed them when I stopped, so I will continue them this season. I decided to change it up a bit this season and do it a bit more randomly. This first one is after the Twins competed their first series of their young 2013 season, hosting the Detroit Tigers who are the favorite to win (at least) the AL Central in the 2013 season. I will try to coincide these thought posts with the end of Twins' series. As previously, the content will be on the major league team, as well as the minor league team; I will also include additional factoid and links to Twins' stuff, like last season. Here is the first installment: After Wednesday's win, it was the first time the Twins were at .500 after the 2010 season. Good to see them winning the opening series 2-1 at home over the AL Central favorites. If the Twins win at home, play close to .500 ball on the road, and win over the other AL Central teams, great things will happen. I think that a lot of fans were surprised by the strong showings of Vance Worley, Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey. From what I saw and reported last week from Fort Myers, I was hopeful for both Correia and Pelfrey. This is in contrast to the 3 pitchers who opened the 2012 season in Baltimore: Carl Pavano allowed 4 runs (all earned) in 7 IP, Fransisco Liriano 6 (5 Earned) in 4 IP; Anthony Swarzak did a good job with 1 run in 5 IP. Great to see the comeback by the Twins' bottom of the order last night against the Tigers' committee of closers. Trevor Plouffe, Jamey Carroll, Wilkin Ramirez, Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar were the participants and it is clear that this comeback might had not happened if the Twins gave Drew Butera a position on the 2013 25-man roster. Major kudos to Joe Vavra who aggressively (unlike his predecessors Steve Liddle and Scott Ullger) waved in Dozier for the winning run. It great (and about time) to see the Twins play aggressively and fight hard on the diamond. Chris Parmelee and Aaron Hicks have both been struggling at the plate (and they both got their first base hits of the season in the Twins' 8th inning), but the season is still young. The Twins do not have many other Centerfielder options, but I can see Ramirez taking some PAs from Parmelee, especially against LHPs The Twins sold only 19,000 season tickets for 2013, down 3,000 from 2012, which was down 2,000 from 2011. Not winning does not sell tickets, but the revenue loss due to loss of additional non-season ticket attendance is higher than that due to the loss of season tickets. Still the Twins have sold as many season tickets as the total average home attendance of three other MLB teams in 2012: The Astros (19,848), Indians (19,797) and the Rays (19,255). The latter are the poster boys of the exception of the aforementioned rule that winning sells tickets. A team prime for moving to a more baseball-friendly place. Today is the opening day for all full season Twins' minor league affiliates (International League, AAA, Rochester Red Wings, Eastern League, AA, New Britain Rock Cats, Florida State League, high A, Fort Myers Miracle and the newest affiliate, Midwest League, A, Cedar Rapids Kernels.) Speaking of the Kernels, if you are interested in following them, you should bookmark the Knuckleballs Blog, where Jim Crikket (a total Kernels' insider) will follow them from Cedar Rapids with great original content like this. And even if you don't care about the Twins' minor league affiliates (shame on you), you should bookmark them, because the guys and gals of Knuckleballs offer some of the greatest independent blogging coverage of the Twins (including some great game time chats as well as awesome weekly podcasts.) Since we are talking about independent Twins' blogs, make sure you follow The Twins' Fan from Afar, for New Britain Rock Cats coverage, k-bro's baseball blog for a kinder gentler side of Twins coverage and her trademark paper dolls, Peanuts from Heaven, for great lighter coverage of Twins and Twins Trivia, for an amazing historic perspective of the Twins. Interesting to see how few independent blogs are left in the Twins' blogosphere these days, but content consolidation and aggregation by the big paying sites (like ESPN and SI) and more open access to bloggers by teams (which cuts down on independent and open views) has becoming more and more mainstream. Will be interesting to see how this will end up. And this is totally reflected on my blogroll on the left side here. Interesting to see how few of those Twins blogs are now still standing alone. On the non-independent blog side, Harold Sinker has returned with vengeance over at Section 219, the new kid on the block, Mike Berardino (who is a delight to read, btw,) has totally revived the Twins Now blog on the St Paul paper, and as always the super-bloggers and the dozens of contributors at the Twins Daily provide tons of current and original Twins' content and stimulating discussion. RF Oswaldo Arcia (age 21) is the youngest player to start on opening day for the Rochester Red Wings in the Twins' era of the team. He celebrated the occasion with a long 2-run Home Run at dead Center Field in the top of 6th inning at Buffalo. This article on Miguel Sano by David Dorsey the veteran baseball writer of the Fort Myers News-Press, is an absolute must read for any Twins' fan. Food for thought: Tomorrow (4/5) is the 60th birthday of the man, Andy Macphail, who build the twice World Champion Twins teams more than 21 seasons ago. He was born in the same year as the current Twins General Manager, Terry Ryan who was promoted to the post in 1994. Former Twins' opening day starter, Carl Pavano, is facing further life-threatening complications due to his spleen injury. Wishing him the best and a quick recovery. The Twins' product of the week is the brand new this season MLB Minnesota Twins 2013 Batting Practice 59Fifty Baseball Cap, 734, White/Redhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B7UJDK0. Arguably, it is much better looking than the other new this year Batting Practice Cap, in Red, White & Navyhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B7UJEFE that reminds me of Montreal Expos, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8619893258_d0a3a0c5f9_z.jpg

Last season, I started a Random Twins Thoughts series that included a post a week every Tuesday. I was told that people actually liked those and missed them when I stopped, so I will continue them this season. I decided to change it up a bit this season and do it a bit more randomly. This first one is after the Twins competed their first series of their young 2013 season, hosting the Detroit Tigers who are the favorite to win (at least) the AL Central in the 2013 season. I will try to coincide these thought posts with the end of Twins' series. As previously, the content will be on the major league team, as well as the minor league team; I will also include additional factoid and links to Twins' stuff, like last season. Here is the first installment: After Wednesday's win, it was the first time the Twins were at .500 after the 2010 season. Good to see them winning the opening series 2-1 at home over the AL Central favorites. If the Twins win at home, play close to .500 ball on the road, and win over the other AL Central teams, great things will happen. I think that a lot of fans were surprised by the strong showings of Vance Worley, Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey. From what I saw and reported last week from Fort Myers, I was hopeful for both Correia and Pelfrey. This is in contrast to the 3 pitchers who opened the 2012 season in Baltimore: Carl Pavano allowed 4 runs (all earned) in 7 IP, Fransisco Liriano 6 (5 Earned) in 4 IP; Anthony Swarzak did a good job with 1 run in 5 IP. Great to see the comeback by the Twins' bottom of the order last night against the Tigers' committee of closers. Trevor Plouffe, Jamey Carroll, Wilkin Ramirez, Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar were the participants and it is clear that this comeback might had not happened if the Twins gave Drew Butera a position on the 2013 25-man roster. Major kudos to Joe Vavra who aggressively (unlike his predecessors Steve Liddle and Scott Ullger) waved in Dozier for the winning run. It great (and about time) to see the Twins play aggressively and fight hard on the diamond. Chris Parmelee and Aaron Hicks have both been struggling at the plate (and they both got their first base hits of the season in the Twins' 8th inning), but the season is still young. The Twins do not have many other Centerfielder options, but I can see Ramirez taking some PAs from Parmelee, especially against LHPs The Twins sold only 19,000 season tickets for 2013, down 3,000 from 2012, which was down 2,000 from 2011. Not winning does not sell tickets, but the revenue loss due to loss of additional non-season ticket attendance is higher than that due to the loss of season tickets. Still the Twins have sold as many season tickets as the total average home attendance of three other MLB teams in 2012: The Astros (19,848), Indians (19,797) and the Rays (19,255). The latter are the poster boys of the exception of the aforementioned rule that winning sells tickets. A team prime for moving to a more baseball-friendly place. Today is the opening day for all full season Twins' minor league affiliates (International League, AAA, Rochester Red Wings, Eastern League, AA, New Britain Rock Cats, Florida State League, high A, Fort Myers Miracle and the newest affiliate, Midwest League, A, Cedar Rapids Kernels.) Speaking of the Kernels, if you are interested in following them, you should bookmark the Knuckleballs Blog, where Jim Crikket (a total Kernels' insider) will follow them from Cedar Rapids with great original content like this. And even if you don't care about the Twins' minor league affiliates (shame on you), you should bookmark them, because the guys and gals of Knuckleballs offer some of the greatest independent blogging coverage of the Twins (including some great game time chats as well as awesome weekly podcasts.) Since we are talking about independent Twins' blogs, make sure you follow The Twins' Fan from Afar, for New Britain Rock Cats coverage, k-bro's baseball blog for a kinder gentler side of Twins coverage and her trademark paper dolls, Peanuts from Heaven, for great lighter coverage of Twins and Twins Trivia, for an amazing historic perspective of the Twins. Interesting to see how few independent blogs are left in the Twins' blogosphere these days, but content consolidation and aggregation by the big paying sites (like ESPN and SI) and more open access to bloggers by teams (which cuts down on independent and open views) has becoming more and more mainstream. Will be interesting to see how this will end up. And this is totally reflected on my blogroll on the left side here. Interesting to see how few of those Twins blogs are now still standing alone. On the non-independent blog side, Harold Sinker has returned with vengeance over at Section 219, the new kid on the block, Mike Berardino (who is a delight to read, btw,) has totally revived the Twins Now blog on the St Paul paper, and as always the super-bloggers and the dozens of contributors at the Twins Daily provide tons of current and original Twins' content and stimulating discussion. RF Oswaldo Arcia (age 21) is the youngest player to start on opening day for the Rochester Red Wings in the Twins' era of the team. He celebrated the occasion with a long 2-run Home Run at dead Center Field in the top of 6th inning at Buffalo. This article on Miguel Sano by David Dorsey the veteran baseball writer of the Fort Myers News-Press, is an absolute must read for any Twins' fan. Food for thought: Tomorrow (4/5) is the 60th birthday of the man, Andy Macphail, who build the twice World Champion Twins teams more than 21 seasons ago. He was born in the same year as the current Twins General Manager, Terry Ryan who was promoted to the post in 1994. Former Twins' opening day starter, Carl Pavano, is facing further life-threatening complications due to his spleen injury. Wishing him the best and a quick recovery. The Twins' product of the week is the brand new this season MLB Minnesota Twins 2013 Batting Practice 59Fifty Baseball Cap, 734, White/Redhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B7UJDK0. Arguably, it is much better looking than the other new this year Batting Practice Cap, in Red, White & Navyhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=B00B7UJEFE that reminds me of Montreal Expos, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8619893258_d0a3a0c5f9_z.jpg

He needs some time, but I'd love to see Wilkin Ramirez start vs LHPs.

Yes they are planning. Hernandez is the best option in Rochester right now. Gibson is not ready and Walters still needs time to build arm strength and endurance (When I watched him in the last game he started for the Twins in ST he went close to 3 innings and was pitching 85 mph FBs. Not good.) Actually the De Vries situation is kinda recent news. He had a good pen late in ST and just the other day he had some issues that made the Twins push him back to Sunday (the day that Rodriguez is scheduled to pitch for the Red Wings) Plus the Orioles are loaded with lefties and switch hitters, so a lefty makes more sense.

Two things to add: - If Butera was still on the 25-man roster, this comeback would had not happen - If Scottie and/or Stevie were still the 3B coach, they would had pulled the stop sign on Dozier and he would not had scored. Encouraging to see that Vavra is sending runners in aggressively and I hope it continues. (During ST the games I watched this was not the case.)

+1 At this point he and Shairon Martis are at best placeholders or emergency starters; With Diamond, Deduno and Harden (hopefully) returning soon, there will be rearrangements... Still, the Rochester rotation will be pretty strong. One of the issues I have with Rochester is that if you look at their starting lineup today (Thomas 8, Herrmann 2, Arcia 9, Colabello 3, Clement DH, Boggs 7, Sobolewski 5, Olmedo 4, Bernier 6.) has a grant total of 1.5 (that .5 would be Herrmann) prospects, which is not too great... Add Gibson, Benson, Pugh & Hernandez, and the whole roster has 5.5 prospects and the rest is suspects. Which is pretty sad. I can see half and half, but it is about 1:4 now...

Another thing that needs to be noted, is that the Twins are in Baltimore that day, so the trip from Rochester (if needed) is trivial.

^ This (45 Sv) Also Santana tied the WP record with 15 that season.

Don't let me start

I think that the title premise: "Low Expectations Are Easy to Exceed" is totally spot on. The Twins have been having low expectations since the strike (that is '94) and the (non-) contraction (that is 2001). At that point having a "home team" was exceeding expectations. So the mediocrity of the 2000s has been exaggerated and exalted (it is amazing to win a couple division titles here and there and does not matter what happens afterwards, compared to not having a team). That caused a lot of problems and added a lot of teflon to the ones who have been exposed the last 2 seasons... And still there are Twins' fans and media that defend Gardenhire and his buddies and Ryan. Based on those low expectations. Unless someone is going to set the bar high as far as expectations go, this team will never excel. If players like Mike Cuddyer were fine with the loss in game 163 at the Cell and laughing afterwords at the local media, saying that "there is always next year", while avoided contact at the plate that would have tied the game (but might had messed up his hair), and this is fine with the media and the fans (who loved Cuddyer), nothing will change. Yes it is all about expectations.

Darn. I hope for the best. This is awful.

This is true for about half the FSL parks (and that is A+ not A.) For example, the Rays' ST park (and FSL Rock Crabs' home) is worse than the Rock Cats' ballpark and most Eastern League parks (the fan experience in ST is fine but the park is a pit). The FSL ballparks that are not part or ST complexes are like Cedar Rapids So it depends on the circumstances. What is different (and it is a consideration and huge difference) is the weather.

Where were you hanging? That was a great game and probably watched by more people than a GCL game over there

Blaming Bill Smith for this mess makes no sense and it is totally unfair. If anything, Smith is the one who made the organization a top player in the international market going after the major free agents that Ryan could not dream of. Smith was a manager. He was not a "Baseball person". So all the baseball decisions were delegated to the scouts and the manager and the coaches. Blame them.

Add Josh Burris to the players who will come in a month or so to Cedar Rapids, his rehab is going pretty well from what I hear. Also an outside (but decent) chance is that Andrew Ferreira (2012 32nd Round pick from Hahvahd) will be up there after ST. Totally reminds me of Mitch Williams at this point.

Interesting. I count only seven promotions on the roster (including Meyer). The rest are either repeating AA or were demoted from AAA. Surprised with Lehmann (but with Butera in AAA, not that much.) He is easily the best defensive C in the organization and maybe they wanted him to work with May and Meyer.

that is so painful Really Gee

Especially with that new OF deck... (oops I am fast forwarding a season )

The big difference with Kelly and Glynn (and Ryan and MacPhail) is the age. MacPhail who brought Kelly in was 32 when he got the GM job. Kelly was 36 in '86 when they hired him. And not only that, the whole front office and organization was full of young minds thinking outside the box. Fast forward 25+ years, the same people are running the Twins. Something's got to change and major purging is needed....

Thanks for posting these

or Leachman goes the Liddle way...