Thrylos

I hope he really turns it around, because other than that September cup of coffee in 2011, he has not done much at the MLB-level to deserve a position on the 25-man roster, and much more a starting job. He still has to show that he is not the next Shane Spencer... (at least to me.) I'd love to see what Arcia can do and I suspect the same with the MLB staff, so, if he get cut, he would probably be one of the last cuts. He was pretty bad today, so I don't know how healthy he is, but I would love it if he wins the RF job. Again, I have nothing against Parmelee, but he just has not shown that he belongs. Add the fact that his defense is suited more to the DH position (his OF play is worse than Kubel's who was a DH) and ....

They would be doing fine Plouffe too. Carroll would be doing ok, Doumit not so much

Really? Keep what up? Have you checked his numbers in college? If not, they are here. 4.50 ERA, 88 IP, 40 BB, 69 K, 1.5 WHIP in College. For me these are like 10th-15th round numbers. Maybe. He is from Minnesota, whatever. Are you all glad that the Twins picked the kid from Puerto Rico (Berrios) over Rochester, MN's own Mitch Brown last season? I am.

Part of it is politics and keeping the natives in the minor league squads happy. New Britain sucked really badly last season. I think that the Twins will try to help that squad this season. I suspect that both Meyer and May will start the season there. Probably Hermson as well. Looks like the oldies will dominate the Rochester rotation with Hendriks and/or Gibson being the exceptions if they do not make the Twins.

Yeah. I wish Liriano were back, but under different circumstances. He was the only guy the Twins had who had Ace stuff for a while. Just this manager and coaches were not able to help him harvest it. So he needed a new start and maybe will find people who will help him reach his potential there...

Wishing him the best. Good thing they caught it early. Those can be pretty serious.

3/11 is Monday Time flies. I think that I would probably count 1 C per 5 Ps or so, so if they send down 5, will probably send down a C. May and Meyer have allegedly been practicing with the minor league teams. I will be able to tell in 2 weeks when I am there.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch (with the full size images; for some reason hard to reproduce here) ---- It is already two weeks into Spring Training games for the Twins, so it is time for the second version of the dashboards. You can find all 2013 Spring Training dashboards here, for reference. Again, you can find explanations of the measures and the colors of the dashboards to quantify Spring Training performance of the combatants in both the position player and pitching battles in these two links. The dashboard includes last night's game. Here is the position player dashboard (click on images for full size) : http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8520/8541430133_5ee805190b_c.jpg Few Observations: Aaron Hicks and Eddie Rosario have been given many accolades, but for me the surprise of Spring Training for the Twins so far has been Danny Rohlfing, the Twins' 23 year old AA catcher who for all practical purposes has been regarded as organizational depth. However, with his performance in front of the Twins' brass, added to his excellent defense at catcher and versatility (can play 1B and OF as well), he has to be into the conversation regarding Twins' Catcher prospects Aaron Hicks has taken the lead for the Center Field starter position The other 2 OF positions (RF and bench) are wide open, with Darin Mastroianni returning today from a hamstring injury-caused week's hiatus and Wilkin Ramirez performing consistently well and steadily leading Chris Parmelee who really has not found himself and is also ailing. I would not be surprised if Parmelee started the season in AAA. The infield battle and the bench battles are wide open. None of the infielders fighting for the 2 positions has been ahead of the pack at this time. Here is the pitcher dashboard: [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container, align: center] [TD=align: center]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8087/8542528566_1c3a0dce45_c.jpg[/TD] [TD=class: tr-caption, align: center][/TD] [/TABLE] Few Observations: He is starting today again, but Cole DeVries has been pretty consistent and effective as a starter so far, and I think that he is on his way to earn either a starter or the long reliever position, depending on other pitcher's health Speaking of health, despite what it has been reported, I will be surprised if Anthony Swarzak, Rafael Perez and Scott Diamond start the season in Minnesota on April fools' PJ Walters' performance has been pretty steady as well, but unlike DeVries, he has been used as a reliever and been facing lesser competition. He still has possibilities for a pen or even a starting role, based on health Kyle Gibson has had ups and one horrible game. The jury is still out. Alex Burnett and Tyler Robertson have been as disappointing on the pitching side as Chris Parmelee on the position player side. I would not be surprised if they started the season in AAA. Ryan Pressly, the Twins' Rule 5 pick has been the most consistent reliever; other than a horrid game, Tim Wood has been great; Mike Tonkin has been surprising good and Josh Roenicke had ups and downs, but he has been trending up. Could these four pitchers win the four bullpen spots? Time will tell, but it will be a huge surprise if Tonkin does, since the highest level of play he saw has been a half season at Fort Myers with the Miracle. The next version will be after the cuts. Speaking of the cuts, I think that: Bryan Augenstein, BJ Hermsen, Trevor May and Alex Meyer from the pitchers and Kyle Knudson and maybe James Beresford might be it for position players. The World Baseball Classic has decimated the numbers of the Twins position players available,make it hard to field 2 teams in split squad games, so I do not foresee many position player cuts before other Twins return from the WBC.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch (with the full size images; for some reason hard to reproduce here) ---- It is already two weeks into Spring Training games for the Twins, so it is time for the second version of the dashboards. You can find all 2013 Spring Training dashboards here, for reference. Again, you can find explanations of the measures and the colors of the dashboards to quantify Spring Training performance of the combatants in both the position player and pitching battles in these two links. The dashboard includes last night's game. Here is the position player dashboard (click on images for full size) : http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8520/8541430133_5ee805190b_c.jpg Few Observations: Aaron Hicks and Eddie Rosario have been given many accolades, but for me the surprise of Spring Training for the Twins so far has been Danny Rohlfing, the Twins' 23 year old AA catcher who for all practical purposes has been regarded as organizational depth. However, with his performance in front of the Twins' brass, added to his excellent defense at catcher and versatility (can play 1B and OF as well), he has to be into the conversation regarding Twins' Catcher prospects Aaron Hicks has taken the lead for the Center Field starter position The other 2 OF positions (RF and bench) are wide open, with Darin Mastroianni returning today from a hamstring injury-caused week's hiatus and Wilkin Ramirez performing consistently well and steadily leading Chris Parmelee who really has not found himself and is also ailing. I would not be surprised if Parmelee started the season in AAA. The infield battle and the bench battles are wide open. None of the infielders fighting for the 2 positions has been ahead of the pack at this time. Here is the pitcher dashboard: [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container, align: center] [TD=align: center]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8087/8542528566_1c3a0dce45_c.jpg[/TD] [TD=class: tr-caption, align: center][/TD] [/TABLE] Few Observations: He is starting today again, but Cole DeVries has been pretty consistent and effective as a starter so far, and I think that he is on his way to earn either a starter or the long reliever position, depending on other pitcher's health Speaking of health, despite what it has been reported, I will be surprised if Anthony Swarzak, Rafael Perez and Scott Diamond start the season in Minnesota on April fools' PJ Walters' performance has been pretty steady as well, but unlike DeVries, he has been used as a reliever and been facing lesser competition. He still has possibilities for a pen or even a starting role, based on health Kyle Gibson has had ups and one horrible game. The jury is still out. Alex Burnett and Tyler Robertson have been as disappointing on the pitching side as Chris Parmelee on the position player side. I would not be surprised if they started the season in AAA. Ryan Pressly, the Twins' Rule 5 pick has been the most consistent reliever; other than a horrid game, Tim Wood has been great; Mike Tonkin has been surprising good and Josh Roenicke had ups and downs, but he has been trending up. Could these four pitchers win the four bullpen spots? Time will tell, but it will be a huge surprise if Tonkin does, since the highest level of play he saw has been a half season at Fort Myers with the Miracle. The next version will be after the cuts. Speaking of the cuts, I think that: Bryan Augenstein, BJ Hermsen, Trevor May and Alex Meyer from the pitchers and Kyle Knudson and maybe James Beresford might be it for position players. The World Baseball Classic has decimated the numbers of the Twins position players available,make it hard to field 2 teams in split squad games, so I do not foresee many position player cuts before other Twins return from the WBC.

Gibson pitched in 3 A games: He had a great game, an average game and a mediocre game. Cannot take any one of them out of context and make conclusions about Gibson and his control. Maybe he woke up in the wrong side of the bed or the 3 hr bus ride to Clearwater stiffened his back or something. Who knows? I am zero concerned about Gibson. It will all play out...

About as much as US born Drew Butera, Chris Colabello or Nick what's his name are playing for Team Italy. (interesting aside - and this is not a political comment - : the qualification on whether you can play for a team is exactly the same as the qualification for being a minority in the US: if your great grandparent is/was a citizen of a particular place, you are it)

And another thing about this Reusse thing, centering right at Hicks: Yesterday the kid had the day of his life. Nope. He had the day of any baseball player's life. Celebrate that. We all as Twins' fans did. I am sure he did, I am sure his buddies did. Check the Strib write up: Yada, yada, yada, and then talk about how he missed the cut off man in a play on the field and hints about that not being the "Twins' way". I really puked a bit in my mouth when I read that. and put that into perspective and then talk about negativity and where it is coming from....

Agreed. That's why there is a bell curve. Few A's, some Bs a bunch of Cs.

Alright. Semantics Give it another context then: B instead of A+, how about that? Works? "Mediocre" a C? If you are fine with being a B student, you will never do what you need to do to be an A student.

Better analogy would be a Chevy dealer, that was part of Mauer's contract As far as the Pohlads are concerned: - I am thankful for what Jim Pohlad did after he bought the team as far as getting smart baseball minds to run the organization - I am thankful that Jim Pohlad spent the $ it took to bring in players to win the world series (twice) - and the fans rocked the dome too... - I have no issue with the (allegedly) "publicly" financed stadium; financed with bonds that are paid by hotel and sales taxes; so if you don't want to stay in a hotel in Hennepin county or buy anything, you are not paying for the stadium - I have no issue with the payroll or how much they are spending (and if they are spending it for Correia/Capps/Pavano, I'd rather see them spend less) - I had a huge issue with the contraction. And not only with Pohlad but with Ryan as well. Ryan was wagging his tail when Pohlad did that. At that point, Pohlad was worse than Red McCombs. Sell your team if you don't like it. - I have a huge issue that the Pohlads have practically spat in the face of the franchise history (which by agreement Griffith brought with him). It was maybe because a lot was part of the Griffith family and he wanted to cut the cord, but it is horrible to have a founding franchise of the American league, with plenty of Hall of Famers, including probably the best pitcher who ever threw a pitch and there is zip recognition of the fact. It is like the Twins' materialized from outer space into MN in 1960.

Agreed. But using the word "haters" to describe people with different opinions, you automatically become like them, not? Here is my beef with the Twins (and I really do not care about the payroll and I think that the Twins are blessed to have Mauer. Imagine if he signed somewhere else as a FA, there were going to be a revolution.... ) and their mainsteam fans: a. This team has not won a title since 1991 b. This team was horrid in the Ryan years until the 00s, when it became mediocre. (Winning divisions and then 3 and out.) c. Twins' fans think that this was "success" and the press propagated that like crazy. Even if it was better than total suckage, it was not winning World Series. d. Because of that perceived "success" the press and the fans did not care to see fatal flawsin the way this team has been build and managed and the general cronyism that has been going on. e. I am convinced that the Twins will not win a World Series again unless they make radical philosophical and personnel changes. And that was before the last 2 seasons. Now there are many more voices out there who actually start thinking that, gee, something is wrong being a doormat again. And, unlike Mr Reuss who thinks that 2011 was fully due to injuries and 2012 because of "bad pitching" (Gee, did the GM and the manager assemble that "bad pitching"?) they want their team to change so they can win (again - or at least not be a doormat.) Thus the perceived anger. I don't get the whole "hater" thing. If someone does not like Obama's healthcare policies or Bush's wars and publicly speaks about it, is he/she an American hater? Nope. We are all Twins' fans. Some of us are just sicker than other of what the people who are running our favorite team have done to it. That's all. And I hope that the Twins' win it all this season. Really do. That is hope. But my gut says that there need to be changes for that to happen... hasn't happened in 21 going to 22 years now. And, frakly, this is not "negative". It is critical (and actually positive.) If you are not at a desired state and you are not critical about the desired state you will never improve... And improvement is a good thing I think Win Twins!

Even before the groin went bad, Parm did not do much this ST... Check out what Wilkin Ramirez is doing. I think that he might be the next RF if it continues like this (he was hurt last ST and missed all but 10 days...)

Methinks that playing with team Italy made Gardy upset, so he started saying those things about not necessarily carrying 3 Cs. We shall see... OP: Colabello too.

one of them off Cliff Lee, the other off a AAA prospect (pretty decent actually) and the other off a guy who is an old minor leaguer. The awesome thing is that he hit them from both sides of the plate... And that had been a major criticism about him

Nobody knows what Hicks will become, so I am trying to compare them as prospects: Like Hunter, Hicks was also a first round pick by the Twins (14th overall vs 20th overall) from High School and, like Hunter was has been a 5-tool prospect. Hunter cracked the BA top prospect list once (#79 overall in 97,) Hicks did it 4 times with #19 being the highest. Hicks has more speed than Hunter and about similar power (if you exclude Hunter's numbers in SLC in the PCL league, after he was send down by TK, which were unbelievable.) Hunter made it to the bigs at age 23 (for good, had a cup of coffee before) and Hicks might make it too. Unlike Hunter, Hicks is a switch hitter (and he finally is flourishing at switch hitting after all the grief he got). Hicks draws walks at about twice the pace that Hunter did. Finally, Hicks has much better numbers, even if you include Hunter's crazy SLC numbers: .271/.379/.421 vs .270/.334/.417. And Hicks is actually a really nice and quiet guy in real life. Hunter, oh well... So, yeah... Hunter is definitely a potential, but Hicks is a better prospect than Hunter was and his ceiling is higher than Hunter. We shall see what happens.

Yes, but that was in Clearwater, which is a pretty nasty 3 hr drive each way and you will hit Tampa rush hour traffic on the way back. The problem is that Gardy put Hicks in the wrong game

And will increase Mauer's GIDP by lots, compared to a speedy infielder batting second. I think that Mauer's double plays is part of the reason that Gardenhire likes to bat speedy people in front of him.

Yes and maybe And he is also somewhat local so he might actually like to stay. The single issue with SPs and 2014 is the Correia contract, unless it becomes Blackburn 2.0. Speaking off, with Blackburn and Pelfrey and Morneau off the books, the Twins will have close to $20M to spend for pitching, which is about a quarter of their $80M payroll these days. If all goes well, I can see Gibson, May, Meyer, Hendriks, Diamond being the starting 5 in 2014, so not that much of a need...

Arcia is build like Kubel so it is hard to tell what kind of shape he is in. Photo of Arcia in ST 2013 Photo of Arcia in ST 2012. (photos not mine, thus the link). Not that different. I cannot see Tonkin start the season in the Twin Cities, right after half a season with the Miracle. He needs some AA ball. Best case scenario for him would be to follow the Mijares path, start in New Britain and come up later in the season. Burnett made surprisingly after ST in 2010 when 22, but he had a half season of AA under him...

Not if he is back or close to back. Even at 80-85% Harden is easy the Twins' best starter. But that is a big if. As far as how he fits on the 25 man roster, that is pretty easy then Quantity does not equal quality. The team had plenty of options (and then some) last season too...