Thrylos

Here is this week's installment: Tonight Fransisco Liriano will make his next start after he has been skipped in the rotation. I hope the gods of Fastball grand him command, control and deceitfulness Luke Hughes was designated for assignment by the Athletics yesterday to make room for Brandon Inge. The Twins have the opportunity to re-sign him and right a wrong Interesting to see Jason Marquis being the Twins' most reliable starter so far in this young season and that he only has walked 2 (and struck out 18) in 31.3 IP. If this continues, the Twins will be in for a pleasant surprise. One of the newest Twins because the newest daddy in the Twins six days ago. Today is the deadline for potential international free agents to declare with MLB their intention to potentially sign with a team, per the new collaborative agreement. These are players like Miguel Sano, who can sign anytime after July 2nd when they turn 16 years old. The declaration of intend with MLB is new, it creates a more even playing field and gets the "handlers" out of the equation. At some point there will be a list of players who declared, so there will be better profiles and presentations before July 2nd. Few interesting pieces of trivia about the current Twins' broadcaster (and former SS) Roy Smalley: a. he was drafted 4 times but did not singed until he was drafted first overall by the Texas Rangers. b. He was traded to the Twins from the Rangers for the man who he replaced on the booth (Bert Blyleven). c. he was traded from the Twins to the Yankees for Ron Davis and Greg Gagne. A great writeup about Danny Valencia in his home town paper Meanwhile, a Twins' player was engaged last Sunday, and Twins' prospect RHP Ryan O'Rourke writes about Minor Leaguers and housing. Wonder whether that stuffed animal in a particular Twins' player's locker has any significance. Add another misguided release of a minor leaguer to those of Danny Osterbrock and Pedro Guerra: The Twins released Tony Davis last Friday,while they keep signing up 30-something never had beens and assigning them to Rochester. In fact, the Twins' organization has been so class-less in the treatment of its minor leaguers that released Davis while having a broken thumb and stopped his medical insurance. I hope that they do the right thing, because I am not sure that I am liking the new Twins' way... And apparently he is not the only Twins' minor leaguer who was released while injured and the only unhappy one. Speaking of Minor League transactions, there were several promotions this week, the 2 most notable with Twins MLB implications: Deolis Guerra (of Johan Santana trade fame) was promoted from New Britain to Rochester and BJ Hermsen was promoted from Fort Myers to New Britain. Why would those promotions have MLB implications? Guerra and Hermsen have been the best relief and strating pitcher respectively in the organization so far in 2012. Guerra will be out of options in 2013, so he will have to be in the TWins' pen or gone in 2013. He is on the 40-man roster, so it is almost certain that sometime this season he will play in Minnesota. BJ Hermsen, 23, is a starter whose career development path resembles that of Liam Hendriks. If he continues well in New Britain this season he likely would be in the conversation for one of the many openings in the Twins' rotation in 2013. Speaking of Rochester, May has been proclaimed Baseball Month in Rochester. There are some cool things going on there and this involves the Red Wings and not the Empire State Yankees, so it should be fun if you are alocal Twins' or Wings' fan. It is amazing that even some or the biggest Ron Gardenhire supporters and Minnesota Twins' traditionalists out there are started to look at the Manager situation similar to me. Sample number 1 and Sample number 2. Twins who had birthdays the last week: Adrian Salcedo (21st), Ryan O'Rourke (24th) and Luis Perdomo (28th) The Twins are ranked as the worse team in the majors by the big sports web site this week. The Twins' product of the week, is a really cool book. A bucket list: 100 Things Twins Fans Should Know and Do Before They Diehttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=1600785549 The parting shot today is of BJ Hermsen who was promoted to AA New Britain Rock Cats a couple days ago http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7210/6982516862_0a29443d74_z.jpg As always you can find all the Random Tuesday Twins Thoughts and Tidbits Posts here, in reverse chronological order.

Here is this week's installment: Tonight Fransisco Liriano will make his next start after he has been skipped in the rotation. I hope the gods of Fastball grand him command, control and deceitfulness Luke Hughes was designated for assignment by the Athletics yesterday to make room for Brandon Inge. The Twins have the opportunity to re-sign him and right a wrong Interesting to see Jason Marquis being the Twins' most reliable starter so far in this young season and that he only has walked 2 (and struck out 18) in 31.3 IP. If this continues, the Twins will be in for a pleasant surprise. One of the newest Twins because the newest daddy in the Twins six days ago. Today is the deadline for potential international free agents to declare with MLB their intention to potentially sign with a team, per the new collaborative agreement. These are players like Miguel Sano, who can sign anytime after July 2nd when they turn 16 years old. The declaration of intend with MLB is new, it creates a more even playing field and gets the "handlers" out of the equation. At some point there will be a list of players who declared, so there will be better profiles and presentations before July 2nd. Few interesting pieces of trivia about the current Twins' broadcaster (and former SS) Roy Smalley: a. he was drafted 4 times but did not singed until he was drafted first overall by the Texas Rangers. b. He was traded to the Twins from the Rangers for the man who he replaced on the booth (Bert Blyleven). c. he was traded from the Twins to the Yankees for Ron Davis and Greg Gagne. A great writeup about Danny Valencia in his home town paper Meanwhile, a Twins' player was engaged last Sunday, and Twins' prospect RHP Ryan O'Rourke writes about Minor Leaguers and housing. Wonder whether that stuffed animal in a particular Twins' player's locker has any significance. Add another misguided release of a minor leaguer to those of Danny Osterbrock and Pedro Guerra: The Twins released Tony Davis last Friday,while they keep signing up 30-something never had beens and assigning them to Rochester. In fact, the Twins' organization has been so class-less in the treatment of its minor leaguers that released Davis while having a broken thumb and stopped his medical insurance. I hope that they do the right thing, because I am not sure that I am liking the new Twins' way... And apparently he is not the only Twins' minor leaguer who was released while injured and the only unhappy one. Speaking of Minor League transactions, there were several promotions this week, the 2 most notable with Twins MLB implications: Deolis Guerra (of Johan Santana trade fame) was promoted from New Britain to Rochester and BJ Hermsen was promoted from Fort Myers to New Britain. Why would those promotions have MLB implications? Guerra and Hermsen have been the best relief and strating pitcher respectively in the organization so far in 2012. Guerra will be out of options in 2013, so he will have to be in the TWins' pen or gone in 2013. He is on the 40-man roster, so it is almost certain that sometime this season he will play in Minnesota. BJ Hermsen, 23, is a starter whose career development path resembles that of Liam Hendriks. If he continues well in New Britain this season he likely would be in the conversation for one of the many openings in the Twins' rotation in 2013. Speaking of Rochester, May has been proclaimed Baseball Month in Rochester. There are some cool things going on there and this involves the Red Wings and not the Empire State Yankees, so it should be fun if you are alocal Twins' or Wings' fan. It is amazing that even some or the biggest Ron Gardenhire supporters and Minnesota Twins' traditionalists out there are started to look at the Manager situation similar to me. Sample number 1 and Sample number 2. Twins who had birthdays the last week: Adrian Salcedo (21st), Ryan O'Rourke (24th) and Luis Perdomo (28th) The Twins are ranked as the worse team in the majors by the big sports web site this week. The Twins' product of the week, is a really cool book. A bucket list: 100 Things Twins Fans Should Know and Do Before They Diehttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=1600785549 The parting shot today is of BJ Hermsen who was promoted to AA New Britain Rock Cats a couple days ago http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7210/6982516862_0a29443d74_z.jpg As always you can find all the Random Tuesday Twins Thoughts and Tidbits Posts here, in reverse chronological order.

That was in reply to someone who said that he was a bad defender...

I am not talking about MLB. And if the sample size is too small to make him a "good" defender, must be too small to make him a "bad defender" also, correct?

I disagree. I think that Mr Pujols is toast.

Hughes is an above average defensive second baseman. Not that much at 3rd. And also very good at 1st. Check his numbers with any sort of defensive metrics out there at second and first; just don't drink the coolaid the Twins are serving...

I think that this game shows how short-sided was the Luke Hughes DFA by the Twins. Today they have 3 lefties on the bench Mauer/Burroughs/Thomas and another (Morneau) at DH who has not been hitting the cover off the ball off LHPs... That bench was nicely balanced at the begining of the season. They need to get back to that.

Had the opportunity to watch Luke pitch this Spring Training in an intersquad game of Field #2 at Fort Myers. I will dig my files to see if I have any pictures. My first thoughts were: a. Darn, he is an imposing figure. The guy is big. Almost Tyler Robertson big. Can play DE for the Vikings big. b. He tosses so softly. He must have 4-5 different pitches ranging from low low 70s to mid 80s. I think that that fastest fastball I saw him toss was at 86. He is a nibbler. What people call "crafty leftie" (aka "junkballer"). Here is one occassion where the pitching style does not fit the player's frame...

No. It happens all the time.

Happy Birthday!

He was not released (Inge was released by Detroit, for example.) Hughes was designated for assignment. He might clear waivers and end up in AAA Sacramento playing for the A's.

Yes. Very impressive and $3M a season less than what Cuddyer cost. At this point, there is no comparison. I am sure that Twins' scribes are missing Cudduyer because he was a talking head and always had a quote, and Willingham is more reserved, but so far all more than good

He just turned 22. The average age for the Snappers is 22, there are several 23 year olds playing and a few 24 year olds (Lin, O'Rourke, Carter). This is his second season in Beloit, maybe that's why you think he is older. Both Leachman and Hurlbut who are going to Beloit are older than him... Pretty big jump pretty quickly for Hermsen, I wonder if that means that he might be in the Twins' rotation conversation in 2013...

I like Ben Revere. And here is why I like him: He has good energy. Big smile, busts his rear end to make it happen. Good Energy. So did Kirby Puckett, so did Carlos Gomez, so does Lexi Casilla...

Cool stuff! I met Corey in ST last month. Nice kid. Really good stuff, he can start and I bet he wants to start.

I'd prefer him over Inge and Burroughs any day. PH, occasional DH and PR (he stole 29 last season) and cannot be worse than Parm and Doom at the OF if the occasion call it. Plus I suspect that he brings in professionalist and a winning attitude.

Here are Mastroianni's total numbers after Friday's game. His AA stint was not good. Right now he has enough PAs in AAA to hit a respectable .274/.338/.315 overall, which is good enough to get him of this list in the next iterration.

Before tonight the Twins are 13th in the AL in runs scored... Definitely not enough runs

Hope you don't mind me tossing this here, but here is a picture of Blake (#13) this Spring Training with Brett Jacobson (#37) warming up in the pen, so we know what these guys look like other than mugshots http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7120/7120272691_0dc5c51915_z.jpg

Yes... very expected. Here is what I wrote about him 3 years ago... I just don't get the idiocy of the Twins MiLB evaluators sometimes....

Span is on his prime. He is 28. He has about 1-2 more years left (which is what is is contracted,) then he will decline. Thankfully he is having a good year to increase his trade value. I guess a lot of people forgot that he was average in 2010 and 2011. As far as prospects go, I would have no problem if the Twins traded Revere and/or Arcia, but Morales will be better than Span... More power, better defense, faster and equally good OPS. The Twins have to sell high on Span because they don't know if the next 2 seasons will be like 2010 and 2011...

Just heard Gardenhire on the radio saying that "he always liked Inge", "he wants him on the team", "he is a gamer", "he can hit, he can catch"... God Save the Queen

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- This is the third installment in this series. You can find all of them here in reverse chronological order. I will be doing these approximately weekly or at the end of every 2 series. In the last 2 series against the Rays and Red Sox the Twins as a team hit an underpowered .241/.326/.310 with 1 HR and scored 21 runs. This helped them finish only 1-5 in these series. The Twins Hitter of the Week was: Joe Mauer http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7080/6973664534_9f3a089bbe_z.jpg .409/.500/.409 9 H, 4 RBI, 2 R in 26 plate appearances As with the hitting, the Twins' pitching in the last 2 series was equally responsible for their 1-5 record against the Rays and the Red Sox. As a team, the Twins pitched to a 6.23 ERA, allowing 58 hits (including 9 home runs, 11 doubles and a triple,) 38 Runs (all but 2 earned) in 52 innings, facing 224 batters. They threw 891 total pitches and 553 of them were strikes. They walked 17 and struck out 40. This results in a 1.44 WHIP, 6.9 K/9 and 2.4 K/BB. The Twins' Pitcher of the Week was: Anthony Swarzak http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7116/7119747105_7d36d4407a_z.jpg 2 Games, 5 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 4K

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- This is the third installment in this series. You can find all of them here in reverse chronological order. I will be doing these approximately weekly or at the end of every 2 series. In the last 2 series against the Rays and Red Sox the Twins as a team hit an underpowered .241/.326/.310 with 1 HR and scored 21 runs. This helped them finish only 1-5 in these series. The Twins Hitter of the Week was: Joe Mauer http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7080/6973664534_9f3a089bbe_z.jpg .409/.500/.409 9 H, 4 RBI, 2 R in 26 plate appearances As with the hitting, the Twins' pitching in the last 2 series was equally responsible for their 1-5 record against the Rays and the Red Sox. As a team, the Twins pitched to a 6.23 ERA, allowing 58 hits (including 9 home runs, 11 doubles and a triple,) 38 Runs (all but 2 earned) in 52 innings, facing 224 batters. They threw 891 total pitches and 553 of them were strikes. They walked 17 and struck out 40. This results in a 1.44 WHIP, 6.9 K/9 and 2.4 K/BB. The Twins' Pitcher of the Week was: Anthony Swarzak http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7116/7119747105_7d36d4407a_z.jpg 2 Games, 5 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 4K

Other than your decision #1 (and with only the Butera part), I have no problem. 3 wishes and cannot fire Gardy... hmmm... Can I fire Rantz? or make him retire at least? Ok. Here are my 3 wishes: #1 Cannot fire Gardy or Ryan, but do a massive upgrade in Twins' coaching staff (no restriction for that ) : I hand Stevie, Liddly, Andy and Vavry their walking papers and replace them with Tom Brunansky as the hitting coach, Bobby Cuellar as the pitching coach, Jake Mauer as the third base coach and hire a veteran like Terry Francona as the bench coach or make Molitor or Kelly do it. Because, this is the Twins and gotta be Minnesota nice, I give Andy and Vavry the option to be the pitching and hitting coaches at Rochester and Stevie to realize his live long dream and manager the Miracle. As far as Liddly goes, he has the option to run the EST program. Jerry White stays. #2 Trade Carl Pavano, Denard Span, Aaron Hicks, Drew Butera and Matt Capps to the Philies for Tyler Cloyd, Trevor May, Domonic Brown, and Michael Stutes (pretty fair trade for both teams at this point, and if I'd trade with someone, might as well trade with my home team ) #3 Option Parmelee, Hendriks, Burnett; DFA Gray, Maloney, Thomas, Burroughs; Recall Cole Devries, Anthony Slama, Aaron Bates, Rene Rivera, Brian Dozier ; need 1 extra 40-man spot: remove Nishioka from the 40-man roster and prey he is claimed or quits. Rotation: Tyler Cloyd, Fransico Liriano, Trevor May, Anthony Swarzak, Jason Marquis pen: Glen Perkins, Michael Stutes, Jared Burton, Nick Blackburn, Brian Duensing, Anthony Slama, Cole DeVries, Starters: Mauer C, Morneau/Bates 1B, Casilla 2B, Dozier SS, Valencia 3B, Brown RF, Revere, CF, Willingham LF, Doumit/Morneau DH Bench: Plouffe(OF/IF), Carroll (IF super sub), Rivera (Liriano's personal Catcher), Bates (1B/OF)