Thrylos

Things get trickier because of the WBC that has 2 Cs and 2 1Bs and few others (sorry Perk) out. What I think the first cuts would be: Kyle Knudson Danny Santana Deibi Romero (academic) Oswaldo Arcia (academic) Shairon Martis Bryan Augenstein re: the catching assessment above: They really cannot cut many catchers without cutting pitchers. Lots of stuff going on the side so they have to have people catching bullpens etc.

I think that this whole PED situation has to be resolved somehow better than it is right now. And the whole witch hunt from the holier than thou HOF ballot holders (who are the same people who gave an MVP award to someone who tested positive and had no comment when a legend admitted to have taken PEDs but getting their tidy whities up in wads about even voting someone who might have seen someone else taking steroids -Bagwell- to the HOF.) Yes there are better policies needed for the future and present; but there needs to be a consideration about the past esp. as far as HOF induction and milestones and awards are considered.

Nope IIRC Blackburn pitched only 2-3 games last ST because he was bothered with stuff. The best (starting) pitcher last ST was FranKKKKKKKKKKKKKKie. The best relief pitcher last ST was Casey Fien, but he did not make the cut

Kinda of a fun question and a wonderful problem to have Not all of those have the same tools or ceiling and you cannot put all of those in the same bucket. The 3 with the most tools and the highest ceiling are (alphabetically) Benson, Buxton, Hicks. Benson has only one option left and is 3 years away from arbitration, so that plays too... Buxton is 2-3 years behind them so you might not have overlap. Arcia and Kepler are similar and they could be 3.5 tool guys with plus power (no speed, questions in fielding but Kepler is a better fielder.) So corner OFs with a ceiling better than Willingham's last season but pretty close. Mastro is a backup in a good team. Ceiling is Gladden with more speed. I frankly don't think that Jimenez / Rodriguez / Roberts / JD Williams / Ortiz / Proctor would be anything more than potentially average or backup major leaguer OFs unless they get their power and average up or move to second base (we saw that trick before) or shortstop Walker is playing the OF, but he projects as a DH/1B But that is just my opinion. (and you forgot Angel Morales )

Leachman was hurt in ST last year. Saw him play a game (with the Beloit guys) against the (A) Orioles and he could barely swing the bat. Also he DH'd because he could not play the field. So he had to get EST and I think that the E-town assignment was a rehab. Wonder how many of those kids are injured and we just don't know it...

This assumes that Diamond will be ready in 3 weeks and a bit without throwing a single pitch in a game so far and having only 2 bullpens this Spring. I doubt it. Pelfrey is a question mark also, since if he makes it, he will have one of the shortest TJ recovery times in history. So I think that only 2 SPs are 100% sure (barring injuries) : Correia (your opening day starter) and Worley. The others are up in the air and DeVries has as a good chance as anyone else to grab a spot. Add the facts that a. there is no way that Swarzak starts the season in the Twin Cities and b. DeVries was a lights out closer in New Britain (after Slama was promoted) before he returned to a starter the season after and c. he is on the 40-man roster, I think that DeVries has the upper hand in getting a job in the 25-man either as a starter or as a reliever to start the season. He just has to earn it and if he keeps pitching the way he has been, I don't see it otherwise...

Good stuff. Especially, if you all rely less on Flash ads. Frankly I have to kill flash (on the task manager) to get some of these pages to go on occasion....

Good luck this season AJ and enjoy the unseasonably cool (nice) temps at the Fort this week. if you want to have fun, ask him about zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. Or maybe you did and got plunked

Again, check the links above Yes you can park and wander even if they (Twins MLB club) have a game. If they have a game, it will cost you to park; if not it is free. Drive all the way to the warehouse looking thing; it is the minor league clubhouse and the fields are close to there. Things start at 10ish AM so be bright and early. The MLB Camp folks practice on game days at the field closest to Hammond Stadium and you can catch some of them take BP in the cages underneath as well. All minor league games are free.

Minor leaguers (not invited to the MLB camp) have just started to report. I think that sometime this week is the official reporting day. Mostly they will play the 3-4 teams that are close: Red Sox, Orioles, Pirates and Rays. They will play at the side fields. Multiple games at the same time. Schedule is not out yet. OP. Feel free to look at all my 2013 ST stuff including all 3 of my ST guides for this year here. You might have to crawl down to see what you want. Also feel free to PM me (anyone else too) if you have any particular questions.

well... he has had elite power. And it is not only the knees, it is the back. And, let me tell you, at 42 kinda hard to get all those systems go again. More likely than not, his body will be further deteriorating. But still.... Thome would be the lipstick in a 90+ loss pig of a team. (which is the main reason not to get him)

A rebuilding team does not need a part time playing 42 year old with one tool and that fading. I'd rather see them give a bench spot to someone who could be part of the future.

If Pelf is on the same boat, I think that Deduno and DeVries and Hendriks and Walters or ? are ahead of Duensing as starters at this point

Ok. Just for my sanity because I did not see the Perez thing reported before this by Rhett Bollinger, which practically says that they are both off bullpen sessions and just allowed to play catch. (Knew that about Harden, just not about Perez) Which means at least EST for both and that "late March" alleged availability for Harden is more like May. Same with Perez. It is what it is. On other former Twins' news looks like both Baker and Garza will not be ready till at least April.

I think that if Benson, Hicks and Mastroianni are all better that him in ST, he needs to be in AAA. They are all better OFs than Parmelee and Mastroianni and Benson have as many options as Parmelee left. So the argument for Parmelee and control becomes the same as Benson and Mastroianni and control. I would have no problem to have Parmelee warming the 1B spot if they trade Morneau for someone like Vargas/Sano/Harrison but his offense has not been there in the majors last season (other than isoP, he was Buterrible last season.) So I see nothing about handing him a job and not one of Benson, Hicks and Mastroianni if they outperform him. And if he is going to be sitting on the bench, like he did last season, I'd rather see Ramirez or Boggs do that... The other thing is that this team is too LH as is, so I'd rather have Benson (who has the same options and is the same age and bats RH and a much better fielder than Parmelee...) If he doesn't have it, sent him to AAA to get it.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch (and with a little better colors) ---- With the Twins' Spring Training about half a month old and eight official games in the books, it is about time that I start posting these dashboards again keeping track of how the players who are batting for positions are doing. It might seem that Spring Training has been going on for a while, and it has because of the World Baseball Classic. For comparison, last year the first Twins' game of Spring Training was March 3rd. I have previously outlined the potential battles for position players as: 3 outfield positions, including a back up 2 infield positions, including a back up 1 additional bench bat that would be a third Catcher (Mr Butera for example) or a bat off the bench/DH (like Chris Colabello) or an additional infielder or outfielder. Also indicated that I consider the following players as locks (so I am not tracking them) : Jamey Carroll Ryan Doumit Joe Mauer Justin Morneau Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham and in the same piece, I indicated that the battles for pitchers were for one to three starting positions (depending on Scott Diamond's and Mike Pelfrey's health) and at least four bullpen spots; I consider as locks here (thus not tracked), in addition to the 2 aforementioned if healthy: Kevin Correia Vance Worley Jared Burton Brian Duensing Glen Perkins The ideas behind the mechanics of the dashboards to quantify Spring Training performance of the combatants in both the position player and pitching battles is explained in these two links. For the pitchers, I quantify using a measurement created by Bill James more than a decade ago called " Game Score". It is calculated as follows: You start with 50 points for each pitcher. Add 1 point for each out. Add 1 point for each strikeout. Subtract 2 points for each hit. Subtract 4 points for each earned run. Subtract 2 points for each unearned run. Subtract 1 point for each walk. There is a point bonus for pitching more than 4 innings as well, adding 2 points for each IP after the 4th, but this is not too applicable here. Game Scored of 49-51 are "average" (yellow), everything higher than 51 "above average" (green), and everything below 49 "below average" (red). The pitchers are broken down as "starters" and "relievers" but it is understandable that starters are candidates to make the teams as relievers. For position players, I devised a similar metric that goes like this: Start with 0 points (unlike the pitching Game Score that starts with 50) Add 1 point for each Run, RBI, 2B, SB, BB, and HBP recorded. Add 2.5 for each hit, 3 for each 3B and 4 for each HR. Subtract 1 for each CS and GIDP, subtract 1 for each error, for catchers add 1 for each CS Subtract 0.2 for each SO and 0.5 for each AB. Again, as in the Pitching Battle Dashboard, the Position Player Battle Dashboard is color-coded based on average, above average and below average performances, where: Average is Batting Game Score between 0 and 2 Above average is Batting Game Score higher than 2 Below average is Batting Game Score less than 0 Without further ado (and no comments) here is the Dashboard for the Twins' position players: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8243/8521721103_89878f7309_z.jpg and here for the pitchers: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8243/8522833028_778a7eb763_z.jpg There is still many games to be played and these will be changing in pretty much daily basis. I will publish the next installment in few days.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch (and with a little better colors) ---- With the Twins' Spring Training about half a month old and eight official games in the books, it is about time that I start posting these dashboards again keeping track of how the players who are batting for positions are doing. It might seem that Spring Training has been going on for a while, and it has because of the World Baseball Classic. For comparison, last year the first Twins' game of Spring Training was March 3rd. I have previously outlined the potential battles for position players as: 3 outfield positions, including a back up 2 infield positions, including a back up 1 additional bench bat that would be a third Catcher (Mr Butera for example) or a bat off the bench/DH (like Chris Colabello) or an additional infielder or outfielder. Also indicated that I consider the following players as locks (so I am not tracking them) : Jamey Carroll Ryan Doumit Joe Mauer Justin Morneau Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham and in the same piece, I indicated that the battles for pitchers were for one to three starting positions (depending on Scott Diamond's and Mike Pelfrey's health) and at least four bullpen spots; I consider as locks here (thus not tracked), in addition to the 2 aforementioned if healthy: Kevin Correia Vance Worley Jared Burton Brian Duensing Glen Perkins The ideas behind the mechanics of the dashboards to quantify Spring Training performance of the combatants in both the position player and pitching battles is explained in these two links. For the pitchers, I quantify using a measurement created by Bill James more than a decade ago called " Game Score". It is calculated as follows: You start with 50 points for each pitcher. Add 1 point for each out. Add 1 point for each strikeout. Subtract 2 points for each hit. Subtract 4 points for each earned run. Subtract 2 points for each unearned run. Subtract 1 point for each walk. There is a point bonus for pitching more than 4 innings as well, adding 2 points for each IP after the 4th, but this is not too applicable here. Game Scored of 49-51 are "average" (yellow), everything higher than 51 "above average" (green), and everything below 49 "below average" (red). The pitchers are broken down as "starters" and "relievers" but it is understandable that starters are candidates to make the teams as relievers. For position players, I devised a similar metric that goes like this: Start with 0 points (unlike the pitching Game Score that starts with 50) Add 1 point for each Run, RBI, 2B, SB, BB, and HBP recorded. Add 2.5 for each hit, 3 for each 3B and 4 for each HR. Subtract 1 for each CS and GIDP, subtract 1 for each error, for catchers add 1 for each CS Subtract 0.2 for each SO and 0.5 for each AB. Again, as in the Pitching Battle Dashboard, the Position Player Battle Dashboard is color-coded based on average, above average and below average performances, where: Average is Batting Game Score between 0 and 2 Above average is Batting Game Score higher than 2 Below average is Batting Game Score less than 0 Without further ado (and no comments) here is the Dashboard for the Twins' position players: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8243/8521721103_89878f7309_z.jpg and here for the pitchers: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8243/8522833028_778a7eb763_z.jpg There is still many games to be played and these will be changing in pretty much daily basis. I will publish the next installment in few days.

That's a tough situation for Redmond but it is where he started his career as a player and he has good attitude to rise on top of that situation. I think that having a fresh start and not a whole bunch of overpaid veterans will help him as well... The expectations are pretty low in Miami. About as low as in the Twin Cities. See them get together a good couple months and the tide might change over there...

I think that he was clearly pressing last year. Maybe this year he will just go out and have fun and play. Hard to really achieve anything if you are pressing the whole time and your head is at the last awful PA or the last E...

If Benson, Boggs, Hicks, Mastroianni and Ramirez (alphabetically) continue to perform they way they have been this Spring Training and Parmelee continues to perform the way he has been, he will probably be the starting RF in Rochester...

Agreed, no reason to get him up in September, but the underlined is false. In September the MLB roster "expands" from the 25 man roster to the 40-man roster (yes technically they can have them all up) so he has to be on the 40-man but will not be on the 25-man (not such a thing technically in September before the post-season rosters are set again for the teams that are part of the post-season.)

Harden is not ready to pitch in a game. Last reports in the bullpens his velocity was low. I think the time table for him is May. Might pitch in some intersquad or MiLB ST games (the minor leaguers are reporting next week btw) and likely will stay for EST. I thought that Perez was ok, but not sure what's up there.

Hate to say this, but the norm has been the healthy guy with the biggest contract has been the Twins' opening day starter under Gardenhire. Depends on whether you count incentives, that would be either Pelfrey or Correia. Not sure that Pelfrey would be ready, so survey says: Kevin Correia will be the Twins' opening day starter building upon the tradition.

I think that if the Twins want to be extra careful with his arm and limit his innings, he should stay an extra month or so down to EST or play with the Miracle. April in Rochester (as in the Twin Cities) can be a pain. If it is a medical decision I get it keeping him away. If it not, I don't get it. The best 25 should be in the majors.

That's cheaper than the Twins' ST beer and soda prices; could be cheaper than the Indians' ST beer and soda prices as well. And definitely cheaper than my local AAA team's prices. Those are at the AA level.