Thrylos

Indeed and Gonzales is on top shape from what I saw last week. Add Sano to the mix and you might break the HR record for a Miracle squad.

The other weird assignment here is Leachman. He should be at least in A+ in his age.

Fun Stuff : Mike Gonzales is listed at 6'6", 264 lbs while Kennys Vargas is listed at 6'5", 215!!! lbs. Here are these guys a week ago http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8381/8605998981_7802e01287_c.jpg

That is just not true. He probably is the best defensive catcher at LF. If I had to pick the best defensive C in the Twins organization right now, it will have to be Danny Lehmann. Of course he cannot hit, but his defense is truly superb. Not "Butera good"...

I just had a quick look at the NB workgroup: Albers is on the Rochester roster and Quesada is suspended and will have to start the season in Cedar Rapids. So I don't think they are absolute but are good guides. Thanks for posting this.

Meanwhile word out of Hartford (via the Currant) is that Meyer, May, Hermsen (in DL and will stay in Fort Myers for 2 weeks with a strained oblique) and Pinto are all in the Rock Cats' roster. Official roster for AA has not been posted yet.

This is one of the reasons that the Twins will never sign Blackley. Gardy will confuse him with Blackie.

Yeah. Actually I think these should probably happen a couple times a season. In the beginning and after the signing day for the draft so the new guys get followed in the season they signed.

Great stuff! Keep them coming

Details here. Interesting that Arcia, Albers and Pugh made it. A whole bunch of players on the DL.

Originally published in full with 56 pictures at The Tenth Inning Stretch ----- Like all good things that have an expiration date, the Twins' 2013 Spring Training had to end today. Tomorrow the games mean everything as the Twins are opening the season in a frigid Target Field against the Detroit Tigers. As in the last few years, I attended Spring Training (you can find all my 2013 Spring Training posts here) and took several pictures. This is pretty much my photo diary without comments (but in one picture). It is in chronological order. Feel free to ask any questions about these pictures here and I will answer them. Small (but important) print: All images are: Copyright 2013, The Tenth Inning Stretch. Feel free to use them, for non-profit situations, with a. appropriate attribution of the copyright as mentioned above and b. a link to this post. If you are a commercial entity, or want to use them for profit situations, feel free to drop me a line if you would like to use any of this. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8107/8605999059_c15bcc778d_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8605998907_1f48426305_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8397/8607103482_6c0a089239_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8266/8605998721_c1a6f91196_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8607103336_d44c2a4bd1_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8242/8607103244_c7e68c493d_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8100/8607103182_95cf98abd3_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8527/8607108388_df41999203_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8607108312_32801af160_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8606003221_445b32b78a_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8607108100_90567f3ef0_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8255/8606003077_380a168cc3_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8117/8607107928_d8316e6409_z.jpg (13) http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8521/8607107838_9d06b32954_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8240/8606002825_bf60de1d3b_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8258/8607107670_9e98673311_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8117/8606002669_0f98c36378_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8241/8606002579_4af5ef0db8_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8527/8607107374_5455b5bdc7_z.jpg ----- For space and bandwidth considerations, only part of the photo diary is re-posted here. Feel free to continue at The Tenth Inning Stretch for the rest of the photos, including photos of the Twins' top prospects and Mauer's HR against Toronto. 56 photos in all.

Originally published in full with 56 pictures at The Tenth Inning Stretch ----- Like all good things that have an expiration date, the Twins' 2013 Spring Training had to end today. Tomorrow the games mean everything as the Twins are opening the season in a frigid Target Field against the Detroit Tigers. As in the last few years, I attended Spring Training (you can find all my 2013 Spring Training posts here) and took several pictures. This is pretty much my photo diary without comments (but in one picture). It is in chronological order. Feel free to ask any questions about these pictures here and I will answer them. Small (but important) print: All images are: Copyright 2013, The Tenth Inning Stretch. Feel free to use them, for non-profit situations, with a. appropriate attribution of the copyright as mentioned above and b. a link to this post. If you are a commercial entity, or want to use them for profit situations, feel free to drop me a line if you would like to use any of this. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8107/8605999059_c15bcc778d_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8605998907_1f48426305_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8397/8607103482_6c0a089239_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8266/8605998721_c1a6f91196_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8607103336_d44c2a4bd1_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8242/8607103244_c7e68c493d_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8100/8607103182_95cf98abd3_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8527/8607108388_df41999203_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8607108312_32801af160_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8606003221_445b32b78a_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8607108100_90567f3ef0_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8255/8606003077_380a168cc3_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8117/8607107928_d8316e6409_z.jpg (13) http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8521/8607107838_9d06b32954_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8240/8606002825_bf60de1d3b_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8258/8607107670_9e98673311_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8117/8606002669_0f98c36378_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8241/8606002579_4af5ef0db8_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8527/8607107374_5455b5bdc7_z.jpg ----- For space and bandwidth considerations, only part of the photo diary is re-posted here. Feel free to continue at The Tenth Inning Stretch for the rest of the photos, including photos of the Twins' top prospects and Mauer's HR against Toronto. 56 photos in all.

Twins

Grimes' issue has not been the position but the bat. He has been hitting a cummulative .209/.315/.359 in 2 seasons in Beloit. He is going to three-peat single A, but I believe he has to perform in order not to be counted among the numerous high round middle infielder busts the Twins have drafted from Colleges recently. Maybe they feel that those numbers are ok for a catcher, since there are several catchers in the organization who perform like that in their respective levels...

Because some of us want the Twins to win the World Series not to "improve" from 99+96. If the Twins lose 90, is that a wonderful improvement?

Poutine is not much different that the many versions of "loaded fries" (aka crap on fries) you will encounter in many ballparks. Hammond stadium has an ultra noxious variety introduced this Spring: Carolina fries. It involves shredded pig and bbq sauce and nacho "cheese" among other things.

Alright. Here is a question for you (trivia) : Name the year the Twins had their best ST record as a team. Then re-think while ST matters or not.

I really would not care what happens to Gardenhire (and Andy and Scottie and Vavry) after this season is over and they say their goodbyes, but I know that I will be celebrating

Totally stupid move by Ryan. Lots of other options to take off the 40-man roster including Butera, Wood, Thielbar. Or he could at least try to work out a trade. Horrible move I hope it does not come back to bite the Twins

Good question. And I apologize because I wrote this whole mess up early this morning in an airport lounge down in FL waiting for my flight up North... I got the percentages (the ones in those bullets) and I did simple math: (percentage 2013 rotation in 2012 / percentage 2012 rotation in 2012) X 2012 rotation wins (i.e. 41). And then added to 66. There are a few assumptions that actually work the other way: This assumes that the 2013 rotation will pitch as few innings as those guys in 2012 rotation pitched and the rest will be pitched by Diamond/Hendriks/Deduno/Walters/De Vries/Duensing/Swarzak (as in 2012 - which will not happen) So I think that it is a pretty good approximation. Kid of a teaser for the next installment: If the Twins keep Duensing and Swarzak on the pen exclusively this season, they will gain about 4 pitcher WAR (big deal) and this was not reflected in this analysis...

I'd love to see price tags associated with those items

I do not disagree with this statement. But if the backfiring gets rid of the arrogance and cronyism that has been plaguing the Twins since the mid 90s, it is not a good thing, it is a great thing.

The one thing I learned is not to trust a word that Ryan or Gardenhire or anyone says out there for PR and public consumption, because I would be totally disappointed if I took their word for real. It is not. PR. They think that "rebuilding" will take rear ends off TF seats that even gourmet mac and cheese cannot make them return. Back to the original statement about the Twins' president's tweet and it's "greatness" : I find it extremely tacky and customer unfriendly. Even if a customer has unreasonable expectations and makes unreasonable statements publicly (and, of course, I think that those statements by FJ are unreasonable) the President of the Twins' should not publicly degrade and dismiss a paying customer. Customer service is a tricky thing and IMHO the first thing that it should be done would have been not to reply publicly in such a condescending mode. I think that if there were to be a reply it should have been private and start with something like "The Twins value you as a customer and season ticket holder and we are sorry about your concern, but I would like to ensure you that this is not the case." It is like going to McDonalds, getting a rotten burger, getting mad and tweeting that McDonalds is putting rat poison in their burgers and having the McDonalds CEO reply with a "Really?" It ain't going to happen. You'd probably get contacted privately, get a full apology and a bunch of coupons for free stuff. Chew on that a bit... (pun intended)

Mandelaro over at Rochester pretty much confirmed. As far as the bolded part, he would not be the first Twins' minor league player who had major issues in the way his injuries and rehab was handled. There have been at least 3 vocal cases and many more non-vocal the last few years; add to that the way major leaguers with injuries have been handled, and there is way way too much smoke for not to be a fire...