Thrylos

I guess this might count as one "interesting transaction" this week Methylhexaneamine is a banned substance found in some diet pills and some body building supplements. Not a steroid or a growth hormone thing, but what they classify as a "stimulant"; similar to ephedra which is similarly banned and similarly dangerous. (And this is the reason that it is banned - by the FDA as well. People died who took it.) Hard to tell if he knew what he was doing or if he took something unknowingly with those things. But one's got to be responsible in what they take these days. Glad that the kid is ok first of all...

Geez, what is this? Some marvel comic movie??? We get it... Bobby Cuellar is the great pitching coach ever (with the possible exception of Dave Duncan)... right? It's professional sports. When a team has been the worst in the league for 2 years in a row, changes have to be made. That simple. Look at Cleveland this season and Boston last season. And both are better than where the Twins have been. Look at the football team in Minnesota after last season when it hit rock bottom. They made changes. The Twins have stayed pretty much unchanged (other than musical chairs) since TK retired on the field and since Andy MacPhail left on the front office. That does not serve them well.... About time for some new blood there. And I do not like Duncan (and any one on that A's cheater team). For all we know Duncan and La Russa injected their own players. Who knows (and who cares, other than the fact that they cheated the Twins out of AL West division championships back then...) But it is time that there is some blame placed on Gardy and Andy and Company (like every other professional sports franchise does... before the Twins turn into a worse than a marvel comic movie - if they are not already there...)

Add a few more decisions of the era... but you have to mention that it was not BS alone. Gardy and Andy and Co participated and blessed those decisions, if not lobbied for them. I remember Gardy was all so happy that he finally got his speedy SS in Nishioka and please do not tell me that Andy and Gardy had nothing to do in the extension of Blackburn and the re-singings of Pavano and Capps... Cannot blame everything on BS (that last one is on the interim too.) Gardy and Andy cannot be on the clear the whole time as well. They are the leaders of the worst team in the league 2 seasons in a row, they should be walking on very thin ice.

So tell us why R.A. Dickey is not a Twin right now and why Blackburn is signed until 2014? Luck? Cleveland got rid of their pitching coach even though their rotation has been better than the Twins. The Twins are on pace to finish with the worse record in the AL for a second season in a row and the Scholarships that the interim was so against at the beginning of the season, still stand for the manager and the coaches of that debacle. How can they be unscratched here. Someone has to pay. And Marquis who was pitching like crap earlier this season, took a no-hitter into the 7th inning and ended up with a two-hitter. And you are telling me the coach is clean....

Could be that they both thrive under Bobby Cuellar and Tom Brunansky and not so much under Andy and Vavry.

Just checked fangraphs... He is down 4 mph off his peak velocity for FB (sits at 88ish) and Change and 3 mph off on the slider. Yeah, you might have something here... On the other hand, 88 mph fastball and 3.6 K/9 is exactly what the Twins have been looking in free agent pitchers recently

Guerra is still young. Mulvey was turned into Rauch who helped the Twins win a division title. The guy who threw the perfect game is part of the bad player evaluation part. Same with Gomez/JJ Hardy. Still what they got from Santana was probably more than what they would have gotten with 2 sandwich picks in 2008 (because the Mets' pick was the 33rd below the Twins' sup pick). Here is who was drafted in 2008 in the 1st and sup rounds. Not exactly ground shakers where those picks would have been....

Agreed, but you have to add: - bad player development - bad coaching - bad scouting and evaluation of their own players (e.g. RA Dickey, Kevin Slowey) - bad training and medical staff

I think that they need to pick 2 starters better than Diamond to be competitive. Doesn't have to be through Free Agency. They can pick them in a trade. Speaking about a certain potential free agent starting pitcher, do you remember our discussion about how Hannibal ante portas Sanchez was going to do in the AL? He is doing even worse that I thought... He is pitching tonight against the Twins btw, so we will see if that K/9 moves to De Vries territory

Didn't he play for Team Netherlands in one of the WBCs when Bert was the pitching coach? He does make sense And I hope they do not sign Pavano for anything. I actually won't be surprised if he is retired. At this point, I'd rather see them pitch BJ Hermsen/Liam Hendriks/insert-name-of-less-than-25-minor-leaguer-here than Pavano.

fizzled out ? Have you checked on him lately? His is having a 1.76 ERA, 0.922 WHIP, 9.4 K/9 and 3.53 K/BB for the single A Yankees as a 22 year old in A ball. Those numbers would put him right with the leaders at Beloit. The fact that the Twins cut him does not make him less of a player.

Mine go like this. This top 10 is easily the best amount of talent I've seen in the Twins system since I started following this team. 1. Sano 2. Arcia 3. Buxton 4. Hicks 5. Rosario 6. Gibson 7. Berrios 8. Kepler 9. Benson 10. Harrison 11. Jorge 12. Herrmann 13. Jones 14. Boyd 15. Santana 16. Polanco As in Felix Jorge? There are better pitching prospects in Dominican than him right now like Miguel Gonzalez, Javier Vargas and Damian Defrank who actually have pitched in games

September 2013 they should be there

If they convert Zack Jones to a starter successfully and he continues to develop a solid third pitch, I bet you'll change that. He is actually one of the 3-4 Twins' pitchers with higher upside than Gibson.

Yeah. At this point, I'd rather see them protect Danny Santana and Josmil Pinto and DFA Nishioka and Butera

Great stuff. Thanks for the good work. Looks like the Twins will have their hands full this off-season trying to protect players and adding at least 2 arms. I just cannot see them be successful without trades.

Ha I bet the used car salesman wants baseball associated with Casinos and gambling about as much as he wants a heavy dose of Syphilis Improve that ballpark? Nuke it and build an indoor facility, which is way too expensive for AAA (or buy the franchise and move it some place temperate). Baseball just is not meant to be played in the low desert in the spring and summer months.

Now what makes you think that Lehmann can hit any better than Butera? He has a .524 OPS between AA and AAA this season. Chris Herrmann, Josmil Pinto and Matt Koch are the only 3 Catchers in the Twins system (not named Mauer or Doumit) who can hit their way out of a a paper bag.

Vegas is the last choice of everyone because the ballpark is hideously old and decrepit, the ballpark is actually not in a decent area of Vegas (if that existed, but like half-way to lake Mead; way North and East of where people are) and the ballgame time temperatures are a toasty 120 degrees some summer days. This does not make for a very good experience.

It was just another proverbial slap in the face for De Vries. It's that perseverance that I don't know if I would have. Signed as a non-drafted free agent, he's always had to earn everything he's got. 2010 was the only season that he really struggled, and he clearly made good adjustments in 2011. The Twins told him that they didn't invite him to spring training because they know what they have in him. I completely agreed with bringing in a bunch of minor league free agents. While Jared Burton, Casey Fien, Sam Deduno and Luis Perdomo have proven to be worth while, the Twins have also released many of them like Jason Bulger, Brad Thompson, Daryl Thompson. All along, De Vries just continued to work hard and keep proving himself. He finally got a chance. I thought when he was sent down that he would be DFAd at the same time, but they didn't. He went down and came back better. He's a pretty smart guy. I think it goes back to a forum entry I started a couple months ago... The difference between a 4th or 5th start, a long reliever, a AAAA pitcher and a AAA pitcher might just be taking advantage of the opportunities given. As that quote says, you may not get a big chance or many chances, but you have to take advantage of it pretty quickly. I'm not sure what De Vries' upside is, probably a #5/#6 starter. But I now fully expect the Twins to keep him on the 40 man roster throughout the offseason, and he's earned that! Agreed And I bet there is something else (and actually really big) about him that I have not seen it written anywhere, but I sense that it is a huge factor: Support by his parents and family. And you see his folks in all of his games. I am sure that they are well off and were not forcing him to get a real job that paid better than minor league wages, but helped him and were supportive in him reaching his dream. He is lucky this way. Lots of kids don't have this level of support. Yeah. As far as performance goes, he did earn a spot in the roster for 2013. I would be surprised if he didn't. And, really, just watching him closer this season (I watched him pitch live while at AA and AAA around here a few seasons ago to last season) I think that his FB is adequate and his breaking stuff is good. I seriously think that he can replace Blackburn tomorrow and nobody will shed a tear.

This team can lose Manship and Gray from the 40-man roster and nobody will be upset. Free Anthony Slama

After his really good season in 2011 (as a closer for New Britain and a set up guy who ended up starting a bit in AAA) followed by a really good AFL performance as a starter, I was practically flabbergasted that the Twins did not extend an invite to the MLB Spring Training to him, like they did to a whole bunch of newly signed MiLB FAs... Good to see him making the team. And btw, now with Liriano gone, he leads the rotation in K/9 (6.3) and is second to Scott Diamond in WHIP (1.21 vs 1.17). 1.21 WHIP is worth of any MLB rotation as is his 3.5 K/BB. There might be some regression over there (.251 BABIP) but definitely he is the second best pitcher in the team right now and his name should be penciled in the #4 spot for next season, after Diamond's at the #3 spot.

Are you counting AFL IP for Cole as well for last season?

The reason that KC let him go (per the KC GM) and likely why the other teams passed on him is that with him having a good season and being in the second year of arbitration, he will cost around $2.5M, which is something that most teams are not willing to pay for him. A contender can keep him and non-tender him after the season is over.

You cannot make a scientifically valid argument about this kind of stuff... 2 different season are 2 different teams and even the same players play differently every season fo a variety of reasons. Not to mention different pitchers, different weather etc... Not neutral conditions so it is very hard to have a controlled set of variables to have a baseline... I don't know. Maybe something like batting practice could be close, but game conditions nope.