Thrylos

one of the rate times I fully agree with something you write. Scary... One comment: here is a list of immortals who got more innings in the majors with the Twins than Slama the last 4 seasons (in addition to the 3 aforementioned) : Phil Dumatrait Bobby Keppel Ron Mahay Matt Maloney Jeff Manship Sean Henn

Ok. This is one of the things that Ryan said: this sounds like a promise. If Slama is not at least invited in 2013 ST, Ryan lied. (of course if Ryan is still the GM) We shall see.

This is kind of the untold and unaccepted (by most) story. The actual amount is more like $85K/month they are in the bigs (prorated MLB minimum). This is about what the most veteran AAA players make in a season. So it is a monetary reward as well. Big time. So, when some of us are really irate that our favorite team has people like Butera make this much and people like Slama not, I hope you get that point of view. And if you were in their shoes, I hope you feel the way they do. More than PAs or whatever. Merit. Ryan said he'll end the "scholarships" (or whatever he meant). He did not. The guys he got rid of (Marquis, Blackburn, Nishioka) all had guaranteed MLB contracts. Meanwhile Drew has a scholarship and Gardy and Co are tenured on a way to another 95+ loss season.

Hope you put me in already (other that the supporting Ryan part)

That is not totally necessary now, is it?

Are you insinuating anything about Ryan and GardyNAndy?

That's what Ryan said. The Slama situation is maddening. And it is nothing new. He was not even invited to the MLB ST (De Vries too) while pretty much all the MiLB FAs they signed were invited. Just surreal. I hope that the Twins will not regret that at some point. As far as Manship goes, he has pitched 85.2 innings in the majors over 4 years in the tune of 6.20 ERA and 1.623 WHIP. That is a lot of innings. And he has pitched worse than Blackburn. Actually I am glad that he is not taking innings from other guys this September. Will be a free agent this winter and I am sure that Mr Boras will find him a nice home. (No way the Twins will add him to the 25-man roster - he is out of options) Unfortunately I think that something might be wrong with Guerra. Does not make sense to not call him up, but the last month or so has been struggling.

----Did you actually read what Nick wrote? To be clear, I'm not saying that the Twins' medical staff compares well to the rest of the league. They might even be among the worst. But I don't believe we have the evidence to make that assessment. Judging a doctor's performance isn't like judging a pitcher, or hitter, or manager, or GM. Each situation is unique and there are lot more factors in play than some would assume. These comments need not come from a medical expert to be given weight. I read him to be pointing out that the constant railing on the medical staff is coming from people who have neither the knowledge nor expertise to make educated evaluations of their performance, which unlike judging a player, is infinitely more complex than just making conclusions based on outcomes. This sentence is actually pretty incorrect... Medical performance has always been judged based on outcomes, and in probably 2-3 years (some pilots are up and running now - google: ACO), most doctors will be "paid for performance" (where "performance" is mostly outcomes.) As far as the Twins' situation goes, there are a lot of issues, including the doctors; but players and especially management have to take some of the blame for the waiting for Godot to go to the DL... Missdiagnosis, is another story

This is one of the weirdest things that has been propagated about him and I do not know where it started... FACT 1: All power hitters strike out more than non-power hitters (ask Willie) FACT 2: Sano's BB:K ratio is better than Jim Thome's at the same age Enough

I'd love to see them do a 3 and out against someone like the A's or the O's and then crush and burn

I agree for in-season call ups (when a team is not in contention; if a team is contending I think the best 25 should be up no matter what) but September is a different story. These guys are not playing in September anyways. So any PAs or IPs will be getting with the Twins would be bonus. Plus I think that it might help them, like it did with Parmelee

This must be Travis Hard to argue with this, but if you put Buxton and Kepler in this because of potential/tools, you got to put Benson in the mix as well. Yeah he had a nasty season but was mostly hurt.

That was his OBP; OPS was .597 Thanks. Brainwhatever...

Not in the majors (stats here) and a couple times was close in the minors (stats here) Career OPS .302 (but still better than Junior)

got a reference? Hope that Toronto (where Salvatore is a "special assistant") trades for him then. Maybe the progress part in "work in progress" means that Drew with his career .497 MLB OPS might catch his daddy with his career .597 OPS. Just 100 points away.

St Paul Ain'ts

Yes. No one is allowed to talk about anything positive. Nothing good matters. I think you misunderstood me. It is great to talk about positives but one cannot talk about impact in a 95+ loss team. As I said, there are positives about these guys, but their impact is minimal. Semantics

Yes. Several of the players who were picked up and signed to minor league contacts did contribute and did make a positive impression and can potentially be part of the solution in the future but we cannot talk about "impact" in a 96-97 loss team. This team has so many problems and is so fundamentally flawed that the contributions of a few of these guys do not really matter that much.

I don't think that the MLB has any issues, but in order for that to happen, someone has to buy an existing franchise in an existing league and "move" it (virtually; just fire everyone and cease operations in the existing town) to St. Paul. And that town will hate the Twins for life. Expect an announcement on the Fort Myers PDC extension soon. (and I am saying this in confidence from beautiful and over-humid Florida tonight)

Ryan missed a golden opportunity to trade Span before the deadline. Unfortunate.

There are 2 empty spots on the 40-man roster. So only 2 players not on the roster right now can get in, and they should (not sure that they will) move Capps to the 60-day DL to open another spot. Slama, Vasquez should have priority over those spots so Colabello is unlikely (unless someone like Capps gets off). I think that both Dozier and Escobar will be called up. Arcia and Hicks do deserve it (And their clock will not start btw). Carson too. I don't know about Manship... Really. He has been worse than Jeff Gray every of the 3 seasons he got an opportunity. He is not a prospect, he is not a kid, he is not effective, he is out of options. Goodbye. I would hate it if he turns into the Tolbert of the pitching staff. They should probably get another catcher up there too, but they will not. Parmelee is a given. Another note: Walters is on the 60-day DL. To add him you got to make another move and I'd rather see Slama and Vasquez before him up there... On the other hand, DFAing Manship and Gray will not hurt the team (even though I do not think that Walters is anything special)

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Here is this week's installment: Kyle Gibson returned to Rochester about a year or so after he was injured there This is a really interesting article (and well researched too) about Baseball announcers favoring certain kind of players. Interesting to see whether there is a follow up about managers following suit. Great read. The New Britain Rock Cats (Twins' AA affiliate) will host the 2013 Eastern League All Star Game. Speaking of, current Rock Cats, Deibinson Romero, Aaron Hicks and Chris Collabelo were named as Eastern League All Stars Congratulations to Candido Pimentel of the Elizabethton Twins to be named player of the year for the Appalachian League. He and fellow E-Twins OF Max Kepler made the All Star team. In addition their trainer Ryan Hedwell was named League Trainer of the Year. SS Aderlin Mejia and OF Jeremias Pineda made it to the Gulf Coast League (rookie) All Start Team The ink on this piece by John Wagner indicating that Liam Hendriks is feeling at home at Rochester, did not dry and the righty was called up by the Twins. I am sure that he did not mind. Interestingly enough, this is how the official International League Home Page looked the day after Hendriks pitched for the Twins (last Thursday) This is an interesting article about what Twins' Jose Berrios and Astros' Carlos Correa are doing for the island of Puerto Rico. Because you probably did not see it here is video of Terry Ryan announcing the extension of the Twins Player Development Contract with Rochester, as well as commentary. And who said that you cannot have fun if you are Twins' minor leaguer in a pennant race? And from the you-cannot-make-it-up department: The NY Yankees acquired a player the Twins cut after Spring Training and changed a couple more franchises before he got there this season, and they added him to their 40-man roster And if you always always wanted to have a TK and Gardy and Ray Miller and Billy Martin Bobblehead, you gotta check this out. Looks like the Twins' owners are diversifying Twins' product of the week is the Minnesota Twins Dog Taghttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=B007ORPEZI. The way this season has been going... The parting shot today is one that is worth more that 1000 words, but also needs some to describe it: Last few days of 2012 Spring Training. Fort Myers, Florida. A workout drill with AAA pitchers, and most of them were cut from the major league club a while before this was taken. There are 6 gentlemen pictured here. All but Brad Thompson (who never recovered from injuries and was released - he is second from the left in the background, right behind the guy who is pitching, btw) made the Twins this season and have contributed in varying degrees. Do you recognize them? And this is somewhat of a lesson that perseverence and not getting disappointed by short term perceived failures is a good thing. The tide can and will change... http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7255/7876436966_2b679cff54_z.jpg

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Here is this week's installment: Kyle Gibson returned to Rochester about a year or so after he was injured there This is a really interesting article (and well researched too) about Baseball announcers favoring certain kind of players. Interesting to see whether there is a follow up about managers following suit. Great read. The New Britain Rock Cats (Twins' AA affiliate) will host the 2013 Eastern League All Star Game. Speaking of, current Rock Cats, Deibinson Romero, Aaron Hicks and Chris Collabelo were named as Eastern League All Stars Congratulations to Candido Pimentel of the Elizabethton Twins to be named player of the year for the Appalachian League. He and fellow E-Twins OF Max Kepler made the All Star team. In addition their trainer Ryan Hedwell was named League Trainer of the Year. SS Aderlin Mejia and OF Jeremias Pineda made it to the Gulf Coast League (rookie) All Start Team The ink on this piece by John Wagner indicating that Liam Hendriks is feeling at home at Rochester, did not dry and the righty was called up by the Twins. I am sure that he did not mind. Interestingly enough, this is how the official International League Home Page looked the day after Hendriks pitched for the Twins (last Thursday) This is an interesting article about what Twins' Jose Berrios and Astros' Carlos Correa are doing for the island of Puerto Rico. Because you probably did not see it here is video of Terry Ryan announcing the extension of the Twins Player Development Contract with Rochester, as well as commentary. And who said that you cannot have fun if you are Twins' minor leaguer in a pennant race? And from the you-cannot-make-it-up department: The NY Yankees acquired a player the Twins cut after Spring Training and changed a couple more franchises before he got there this season, and they added him to their 40-man roster And if you always always wanted to have a TK and Gardy and Ray Miller and Billy Martin Bobblehead, you gotta check this out. Looks like the Twins' owners are diversifying Twins' product of the week is the Minnesota Twins Dog Taghttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=B007ORPEZI. The way this season has been going... The parting shot today is one that is worth more that 1000 words, but also needs some to describe it: Last few days of 2012 Spring Training. Fort Myers, Florida. A workout drill with AAA pitchers, and most of them were cut from the major league club a while before this was taken. There are 6 gentlemen pictured here. All but Brad Thompson (who never recovered from injuries and was released - he is second from the left in the background, right behind the guy who is pitching, btw) made the Twins this season and have contributed in varying degrees. Do you recognize them? And this is somewhat of a lesson that perseverence and not getting disappointed by short term perceived failures is a good thing. The tide can and will change... http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7255/7876436966_2b679cff54_z.jpg

Shane Spencer 1.321 OPS to less than half that

"Blind faith vs. evidence and reason" love that title. Can probably transport us like a good 500 years ago when Little Nicky Koppernigk used mathematical formulas to show that, heck, the earth moves around the sun. Indeed. But the powers of being back then did not trust numbers... All their scouts were waking up every morning looking up at the sun moving around the earth and that is what it was. Sue them. Same thing is happening right now to Slama. Unfortunately.