Thrylos

I have never been a Blackburn fan... That said, I had never been a Perkins fan either. I think that because of the contract or what, Blackburn should get a chance for the rest of the season to prove himself in the pen. Let him be as bad as Gray or Manship, if that's what it takes. But I think from what I've seen periodically from him (like a flash of a 93-94 mph FB, if he forgets and throws the four seamer) that he might actually find his niche there and be useful. Don't be frustrated at Blackburn (he is what he is) be frustrated at Gardy and Andy who are playing him and starting him. They are the ones who are at fault here, not Blackburn.

Manship has been ineffective in the majors in 4 seasons. (And the last time he was an above average pitcher was in Fort Myers in 2008.) Will be out of options next season, which means happy trails. I wonder if he is the guy going to the Pirates. Not much of a loss for the Twins.

I think that the Twins gave $. He is a junkballer like Luke French with a "FB" thrown around half of the time and junk the rest. French did pretty well in AA for the Twins this season and doing ok in AAA. If he and his 86 mph FB come up to the majors, he will be lit like a Christmas tree. AA hitters are extremely prone to junk and so are a whole bunch of AAA hitters.

Gotta write about Verlander, Cabrera (both the drunk and Assdribble), Fielder, miscallenous WSux players, etc... keep it to the division

Not sure what you did today, but it is fixed. Bravo!

Interesting, since the Pirates just have DFA'd former 1st round pick Daniel Moskos, who actually does have some up-side as well as options... Don't quite get the Martis thing, but he is just 25 and has been way rushed in the past. Martis is kind of a junk ball pitcher...

I think that the comparison between the returns in the Jackson and Lohse trades is very interesting and teaches a good lesson: Hudson was doing well in AAA for a couple of seasons and had a couple cups of September coffee with the Sux, while Maloney had just gotten up to AA when they were traded. It was obvious that Hudson was MLB-ready, whereas Maloney had "potential". So if the interim goes after MLB-ready players over "potential", he can do better (and at least will have bodies for the 2013 rotation.) One note: I think that FranKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKie is much better pitcher than Jackson. About that "offering him arbitration" talk: With the new CBA, the Twins have to offer a contract of at least 1 yr $12.5 M to get a comp. pick if he signs elsewhere. I doubt they do that.

Totally agreed. And he is a great guy to boot on top of that. I think that he found his niche in the pen plus he does have the intimidation factor (he is as big as Jared Allen) and I hope he continuous up in the majors for a while

Cloyd in AAA this season has a 2.17 ERA, 0.920 WHIP, 6 K/9 and 3.8 K/BB in 11 AAA starts. Tell me a single Twin who is part of that "ton". Hendriks' numbers get close but no cigar. Hermsen needs 1-2 more years. Gibson is a huge ? ...

It could work, but can be done another (easier) way without Valencia having to learn another position: Do the Valencia-Parmelee swap and against LHP play Valencia at 3B and Plouffe at 1B (a position he played before). Easy peasy. But that is if Morneau sticks around the next month or 2

He is an actual person but not a "kid" (well, he is a "kid" compared to some of us, but at least not) in baseball terms. He will be 31 soon. And no. He is not Tosoni. He has hair

Ramirez is stinking up the place at AAA in the pace of .245/.265/.388 Danny V has been better recently but still his totals are .241/.281/.389. If they need a RH bat, Matt Carson should probably be it, leading AAA with .278/.355/.427 Still not sure whether that is an improvement over Mastroianni, esp. defensively and on the bases. I would like to see Danny V up with the team. I suspect that there will be personnel changes within the next month or so and lots of people would get their opportunities. [TABLE=class: sortable stats_table] [TD=align: right][/TD] [TD=align: right][/TD] [/TABLE]

Have you looked at Dozier's slash line recently or look at the defensive metrics of Casilla vs Dozier this season?

Agreed But my point is: -Dozier is not ready to start in 2012 in Minnesota (maybe he could be in 2013,) and is starting. -2/3 of the 2013 starting rotation will not be ready to start in Minnesota in 2013, but they will be starting. -Signing to 2-year extension the teams' DH and maybe back up Catcher is not a priority (esp. for $5M a year), given the state of the rotation. Worse comes to worse, Morneau can be the DH and Parmelee (who is rotting on the bench for some weird reason, btw) the first baseman. And Gardy will play Butera as the back up C anyways...

Casilla is an improvement. He has been hitting better than Dozier and he has been the Twins' best IF fielder this season (and is second in the team in SB) And he is 27 and has 2 arbitration seasons left. The team needs to see whether Casilla is part of the long term solution or not at this point. He is just entering his prime. I never quite understood his treatment by the manager or some parts of the fan-base for that matter, compare to, let's say, the treatment of Dozier... He is 2 years older than Dozier.

None of these pitchers other than Gibson, if healthy, and Hermsen in the right circumstances (in AAA doing well and the Twins have no rotation) will be with the Twins in 2013. More like 2014-5 and then additional names, like some of the 2012 draftees need to be added to the equation

Not sure how I feel about this either... For one, unless either Butera is gone or Gardenhire is willing to PH Doumit for him in games like last night's (or, of course, unless Gardenhire is gone, but not sure that I believe in miracles) this team will not get enough value from Doumit for what they pay him. The other this is that this would be a totally schizophrenic decision, if you look it in the context that this team is having a rookie who is the worse hitter on the team keep playing SS. You either go wholesale young and give people like Herrmann a chance or you go veteran. This half-rear end approach is bothersome. So if Doumit is going to be a UT player is he worth $4-5 mil a season? Probably not, but this is the team that paid Punto about that much...

If the Twins want to target a single person in the Philly organization, it should be Tyler Cloyd. Will fit really nicely in the top of the Twins rotation in 2013. He has been pitching around here the last few seasons (Reading last year, Lehigh Valley this year) and I've see him pitch in person. He is the real thing and he had been flying somewhat under the radar, so he would be easier to get. Here is a recent article on him. Span would be a nice fit there, because of Victorino's status. As a matter of fact, the Phillies are trying to turn Brown into a CF, not too successfully mind you. I do like Brown and he could man the RF for the Twins for a few years, but he needs some work. On the other hand, both his potential and level of play right now is higher than that of Aaron Hicks, so if the Twins build a package around Span and Hicks, I think that Cloyd and Brown could be had (if you add another player or two.) But the interim needs to learn how to trade prospects and young players... Not sure that Ryan is up to par with that.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Here is this week's installment: A first in Minnesota Twins' press coverage: A beat writer questions one of Gardy's decisions last Saturday, and Gardy lashes back at him “We’ll do the managing, and you should write.” Unfortunately for the ones who are doing the managing, pretty much everyone can manage a team to the worst record in the AL two seasons in a row. Congratulations to: Bobby Lanigan, Luis Perdomo and Caleb Thielbar who were promoted to AAA Rochester Red Wings from AA New Britain Rock Cats; to Dan Sattler, Dakota Watts and Edgar Ibarra who were promoted to the Rock Cats from the high A Fort Myers Miracle; and to Michael Tonkin and AJ Achter who were promoted to the Miracle from the A Beloit Snappers. Congratulations to Oswaldo Arcia of the AA New Britain Rock Cats for being the only Twins' representative in the 2012 Futures Game. 1B/OF Mark Dolenc (AA), C/RHP Tobias Streich (EST), C Billy Killian (EST), 2B Julio Torres (EST) and OF Erick Gonzalez (DSL) were released by the Twins The Twins have now signed 23 of their 40 2012 draft picks. Updated list with the bonus money is here The Twins unveiled their throw back uniforms that they will wear against the Kansas City Royals on June 30th. Unfortunately, they will be masquerading as a New York Giants' minor league affiliate, instead of wearing the proud colors of their franchise founding member of the AL, the Senators. I bet you did not know (I didn't) that a current Twins' player had background acting roles in TV shows like Knots Landing, Dallas and Saved by the Bell. Can you guess who? Here is an article on this player. Looks like other teams, in addition to the Twins, have problems spelling their players' names. Here is an interesting article on Twins' 1st round draft pick Byron Buxton and his life. Here is a great article about one of the long time Twins' minor league coaches. The Twins' product of the week is the Minnesota Twins Multi Magnet Sheethttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=B0028C249I. Comes really handy. The parting shot today is of one of the greater guys in the Twins' minors, LHP Tyler Robertston who will make his MLB debut for the Twins one of these days, after he was recalled from AAA Rochester Red Wingsyesterday to replace Matt Capps on the 25-man roster. He was the Twins' 3rd round pick in the 2006 draft. Chris Parmelee (1st round) and Joe Benson (2nd round) are the other players the Twins drafted in 2006 from High School and made it to the MLB. Brian Dinkelman (8th), Jeff Manship (14th), Danny Valencia (19th) and Anthony Slama (29th) were also drafted by the Twins in 2006 and made it to the majors but they were drafted out of college. A little known fact is that Tyler's dad, Jay Robertson, was also a professional pitcher in the Jays' organization in the late 70s, but never made it to the show. He was also a Twins' scout for a moon. I bet he is a proud dad these days. Robertson is wearing uniform number 64, last worn by Chris Parmelee last season and previously by September call up coaches Bill Springman in 2000 and Eric Rasmussen in 2009. http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5446/7442983344_d2be7f2fa7_o.jpg

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Here is this week's installment: A first in Minnesota Twins' press coverage: A beat writer questions one of Gardy's decisions last Saturday, and Gardy lashes back at him “We’ll do the managing, and you should write.” Unfortunately for the ones who are doing the managing, pretty much everyone can manage a team to the worst record in the AL two seasons in a row. Congratulations to: Bobby Lanigan, Luis Perdomo and Caleb Thielbar who were promoted to AAA Rochester Red Wings from AA New Britain Rock Cats; to Dan Sattler, Dakota Watts and Edgar Ibarra who were promoted to the Rock Cats from the high A Fort Myers Miracle; and to Michael Tonkin and AJ Achter who were promoted to the Miracle from the A Beloit Snappers. Congratulations to Oswaldo Arcia of the AA New Britain Rock Cats for being the only Twins' representative in the 2012 Futures Game. 1B/OF Mark Dolenc (AA), C/RHP Tobias Streich (EST), C Billy Killian (EST), 2B Julio Torres (EST) and OF Erick Gonzalez (DSL) were released by the Twins The Twins have now signed 23 of their 40 2012 draft picks. Updated list with the bonus money is here The Twins unveiled their throw back uniforms that they will wear against the Kansas City Royals on June 30th. Unfortunately, they will be masquerading as a New York Giants' minor league affiliate, instead of wearing the proud colors of their franchise founding member of the AL, the Senators. I bet you did not know (I didn't) that a current Twins' player had background acting roles in TV shows like Knots Landing, Dallas and Saved by the Bell. Can you guess who? Here is an article on this player. Looks like other teams, in addition to the Twins, have problems spelling their players' names. Here is an interesting article on Twins' 1st round draft pick Byron Buxton and his life. Here is a great article about one of the long time Twins' minor league coaches. The Twins' product of the week is the Minnesota Twins Multi Magnet Sheethttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=B0028C249I. Comes really handy. The parting shot today is of one of the greater guys in the Twins' minors, LHP Tyler Robertston who will make his MLB debut for the Twins one of these days, after he was recalled from AAA Rochester Red Wingsyesterday to replace Matt Capps on the 25-man roster. He was the Twins' 3rd round pick in the 2006 draft. Chris Parmelee (1st round) and Joe Benson (2nd round) are the other players the Twins drafted in 2006 from High School and made it to the MLB. Brian Dinkelman (8th), Jeff Manship (14th), Danny Valencia (19th) and Anthony Slama (29th) were also drafted by the Twins in 2006 and made it to the majors but they were drafted out of college. A little known fact is that Tyler's dad, Jay Robertson, was also a professional pitcher in the Jays' organization in the late 70s, but never made it to the show. He was also a Twins' scout for a moon. I bet he is a proud dad these days. Robertson is wearing uniform number 64, last worn by Chris Parmelee last season and previously by September call up coaches Bill Springman in 2000 and Eric Rasmussen in 2009. http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5446/7442983344_d2be7f2fa7_o.jpg

Perdomo just got promoted to Rochester

The chances for the Twins to make the "playoffs" are close to zip (unless they tie for the division or one of the wildcards and need a single playoff game; those are the only playoffs in baseball...) But they still have some chances to make the post-season. Pure math: They are 8 games behind the Sux and 5 behind Detroit (in the L column.) If they sweep the Sux they will be 5 games behind them. That's pretty close. But they got to make things happen and not sure that the field management has what it takes to make things happen, especially winning energy...

I cannot help getting the news and scores of my local team (the Phillies) on the TV, but I don't really "follow" them. Takes enough time to really follow the Twins and their affiliates, so there is not enough time (or desire) to follow anyone else.

Don Baylor and Wally Backman too and I am sure a few more. And if you add the Twins' years as Senators there are many more.

Great news! No better way for Big Tyler to start his MLB career vs. against the White Sox.