Thrylos

Bingo. But that is not "the Twins' way". They like to do things their own half-rear end way. I would not be surprised if Ryan picks Capps' option for 2013. Ewing?

This assumes that the braintrust does not go out and sign the likes of Marquis and a bunch of washed up AAA/AAAA MiLB FA Ps to add to the rotation... Unfortunately, this has been the "Twins' way". And, unfortunately, I am not confident that this club can complete unless there is infusion of new blood and ideas from top to bottom from outside the organization. The "Twins way" and the stale old people who are running the team is the root cause of the problem here. Lack of MLB-ready SPs in the organization, non-competition the last few years with one and outs before are just the symptoms...

If anything, it makes sense for the AAA team to be close to the MLB team not a single A team. About half the MLB teams seem to have that arrangement. Almost shocked to hear about renewing with New Britain. All indications were pointing to the Twins moving their A and AA teams (not Fort Myers, that is A+ ) to the Southern and South Atlantic Leagues. I will be shocked if they stay in Beloit and esp. Rochester. Seth, as far as the dorm in Fort Myers' go: About a month or so ago a county commission voted for improvements to the Twins' training complex, which would go hand in hand with a 30-year lease. So I think that the dorms will be taken care of (and the Twins will be there for a while...) There is a lot of empty space south of the complex (I mean south of the county softball fields that are not part of the complex) so dorms can be had near. Also there is space across the street (not sure who are the owners, though...)

That would be almost as bad a waste of money as the Capps, Marquis and Blackburn contracts... His raw numbers say that he a. allows too much contact b. walks too many and c. when he goes to a league where the P does not bat, his K rate drops. Not a good combination for someone whose FB sits at 90-91. Disaster ready to happen like Marquis...

Nah. And using certain pitching performance indicators, it was not a surprise that he has been an average/below average pitcher. Luck can take you so far...

I suspect some of those formulae are complex The Bay area for example is a huge market with a pretty high income level but the A's have been sucky as far as revenue goes. So is Detroit, but that area is financially depressed. Diamondbacks in that list are somewhat of a puzzle to me. And of course what'shisface would have to find a way to include the cheeseheads (his beloved former team)

a. There is no way that the Twins sign any Free Agent pitcher to a 5-year deal. b. I think that the best free agent out there when all is said and done (i.e. after the trade deadline and after contracts have been awarded to Hamels/Greinke and I still like him both than those because NL numbers do not always translate to the AL) might be Liriano c. Unless the Twins are sure they are going to compete in 2013 it would be silly to sign any big time SPs on their prime or close to the end of the line d. I would really do not mind them rebuilding in 2013 with a plan in a good organized way and try to re-think the way they do thinks top down in all levels of the organization and target 2015 as the serious competing point. But they got to have the guts to do it all the way and start investing on prospects that would be coming from trading veterans. I am not sure that they can do that...

I would expect Rosario to be back in Beloit soon. He looks pretty good after the plastic surgery...

Benson needs a couple of hundred of consistent PAs this season before he gets called up. Calling him up on the other hand, would make him a very interesting trivia question answer (and I don't know whether any other player ever did that) : Name the one player who played at every level of affiliated professional baseball in the same season. He started in Rochester (AAA) then moved to New Britain (AA) then got hurt and played for the GCL Twins (Rk) then up to Fort Myers (A+)... Would be fun to see him in the majors on second thought just because of this.

Not. Even. Close. The "good Kevin Slowey" was average Greg Maddux-like. One of the biggest wastes (for misdiagnosed and mistreated injury reasons, which created a lot of friction with GardyNAndy) in the recent Twins' history

If you look at those top 4 transactions that happened by the current interim GM, only in the first one he got more than he gave or resulted in improving the club. The other 3 moves were busts and one of them (getting Butera for Castillo) is still hurting the Twins... Gotta have confidence on Ryan...

Probably And in the "Twins way" and the way Rantz develops players, Trout would have probably been in New Britain right now...

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- Here is this week's installment (back from the hiatus of the All Star Break) : The newest promotions in the Twins' system: RHP Dan Sattler and OF Evan Bigley to Rochester, RHP Marty Popham to New Britain, RHP Dallas Gallant, LHP Steven Evans, SS Stephen Wickens to Beloit. On the other hand, Steven Hirschfeld and David Bromberg returned to New Britain from Rochester. Joe Benson started his rehab with the GCL Twins a couple weeks ago, moved to Miracle last week and today he is back at AA New Britain Rock Cats 1B Matt Rizzotti (AA), LHP Bart Carter (A) and Venezuelan 3B Jairo Pérez (A+) were released by the Twins' organization. Pérez' release is a mystery because he has been performing well lately, and all indications point that it was not preformance-based. Newly drafted Twin Jake Proctor was transfered to the GCL 60-day DL because of a concussion Speaking of the draft, the Twins have signed 27 of their 43 picks. A complete list with known bonuses is here. Lots of trade scenarios for the Twins are coming out of thin air right now and the interim GM said that there will be no untouchables. Wheeling and dealing Ryan? Speaking of trades, Gardenhire is decreasing Matt Capps' trade value by deciding to keep him in a set-up role "for now" This is a great article on Trevor Plouffe. Kind of old news, but since it has never been mentioned, here it is: The Twins' players who made the jump from the Dominican Summer League to the Gulf Coast League this season are: Jose Ramirez, Melciades De La Cruz, Randy Rosario, Yoman Landa and Felix Jorge. A certain Twins' reliever has been hanging with music celebrities The documentary on Miguel Sano, Pelotero (Ballplayer), is now available on itunes. Apparently Gardenhire is holding a certain baseball hostage The Twins' product of the week is Minnesota Twins: The Complete Illustrated Historyhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=0760336849. A must read for Twins' fans covering the franchise history from the 1961 move on... The parting shot today is of the one and only BOSS: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7250/7498088018_24d4442b8a_z.jpg

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- Here is this week's installment (back from the hiatus of the All Star Break) : The newest promotions in the Twins' system: RHP Dan Sattler and OF Evan Bigley to Rochester, RHP Marty Popham to New Britain, RHP Dallas Gallant, LHP Steven Evans, SS Stephen Wickens to Beloit. On the other hand, Steven Hirschfeld and David Bromberg returned to New Britain from Rochester. Joe Benson started his rehab with the GCL Twins a couple weeks ago, moved to Miracle last week and today he is back at AA New Britain Rock Cats 1B Matt Rizzotti (AA), LHP Bart Carter (A) and Venezuelan 3B Jairo Pérez (A+) were released by the Twins' organization. Pérez' release is a mystery because he has been performing well lately, and all indications point that it was not preformance-based. Newly drafted Twin Jake Proctor was transfered to the GCL 60-day DL because of a concussion Speaking of the draft, the Twins have signed 27 of their 43 picks. A complete list with known bonuses is here. Lots of trade scenarios for the Twins are coming out of thin air right now and the interim GM said that there will be no untouchables. Wheeling and dealing Ryan? Speaking of trades, Gardenhire is decreasing Matt Capps' trade value by deciding to keep him in a set-up role "for now" This is a great article on Trevor Plouffe. Kind of old news, but since it has never been mentioned, here it is: The Twins' players who made the jump from the Dominican Summer League to the Gulf Coast League this season are: Jose Ramirez, Melciades De La Cruz, Randy Rosario, Yoman Landa and Felix Jorge. A certain Twins' reliever has been hanging with music celebrities The documentary on Miguel Sano, Pelotero (Ballplayer), is now available on itunes. Apparently Gardenhire is holding a certain baseball hostage The Twins' product of the week is Minnesota Twins: The Complete Illustrated Historyhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=0760336849. A must read for Twins' fans covering the franchise history from the 1961 move on... The parting shot today is of the one and only BOSS: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7250/7498088018_24d4442b8a_z.jpg

Fact: The Twins offered Redmond a coaching job with the EST and GCL squads when he became a free agent. He thought that he still had something left and wanted to play and signed a contract with the Indians (and he sucked) for a year. Redmond was a character but he was done a couple years before the Twins continued to play him (same story with Butera, it seems, but Butera was born done...) I don't know that I would like anyone associated with "the Twins' way" to succeed Gardenhire, when he will be gone (and that time will not be soon enough.) This organization drastically needs fresh minds from top to bottom.

Turn that 35 into 32, unless we are talking about HOF-caliber players and I would agree with that...

Agree 100% and the difference between Diamond 2012 from Diamond 2011 supports that argument. Diamond 2011 was not ready. Hendriks 2012 is not. He is in a good place with a good pitching coach. He will do fine.

Off the 25-man roster (alphabetically) : Capps Casilla Fien Gray Liriano Morneau Pavano Span - PJ Walters, Parmelee and Blackburn return and some new blood as well

I beg to disagree... check how much the Twins are paying Burton now and how much they paid to extend Perkins. $6 for Capps is way too much. If he were a lights out type of closer, that would had been a better story... Back to the original post. Great job JC. Good stuff. But the bottom line is: if TR does not bring new players to make this team competitive, he should be gone for failure to perform his job.

Really? Look at 2006: Both SP and pen (total pitching ranks in the AL) : 2nd in ERA, 1st in K, 2nd in runs allowed, 1st in BB allowed, 2nd in wins. Much better than "decent"... And most of the Gardy era, other than the last 2 seasons, the SP has been on the top half of the league; the fact that Gardy likes his "proven veterans" so the GMs have been bottomfeeding for the likes of Marquis, Livan, Ponson, Ortiz etc and throwing out good $ to the likes of Pavano, which decreases the ranking on the pitching, notwithstanding. Add also the fact that the Twins have had top pitchers and they did not get them to perform like other teams did (RA Dickey for example)... Enough about that suburban legend that Gardy and Andy had nothing to work with all those years...

I'll tell you more about these guys after I see them at Fort Myers next spring, but from what I hear Melotakis' delivery does not really translate to starting. Given that the guy does not throw like Neshek I am taking that with a grain of salt till I see him pitch. Heck, I think that Corey Williams should be starting too (if he takes a better approach to get ready in the pen than he does now - long story)

The Mets traded him to the Giants last offseason. And got to love his full name btw. Angel Pagan or Pagan Angel. But not a

Let me start with saying that I do not care much about Ryan. That said, I don't think that there was a single player available when the Twins picked with their first 2 picks who would be absolutely a no-brainer better than who they picked. It is not like Giolito fell down on the supplemental round and did not pick him. Mazzilli, like his dad, is a guy better suited for DH and PH. Why waste money in that kind of skillset? I'd rather see them invest the money they saved another way. It is not like they passed on someone because of the money...

How do you measure that? W-L record? ERA? Last five years time frame? You are forgetting Slowey.

This is so true. He is a lot like a former Twins' CFer... and their career numbers are even eerily similar. Span's career numbers are .283/.357/.385 and that guys' .256/.358/.372 . And pretty similar players on the field, but the other guy was probably a bit better and did not have Span's concentration lapses on the bases... Any idea who I am talking about? And that guy would probably be the definition of "average"...