Thrylos

If the last few ST games are any indication RF (and 1B) will be revolving doors: Parmelee/Plouffe/Revere/Doumit RF Hughes/Parmelee/Burroughs/Mauer (occasionally)/Morneau (NL games) 1B I think that Parmelee will be the starter at RF and Hughes at 1B for the opening day with Doumit on the bench.

This actually is not accurate. After leaving the MLB camp, Mastroianni went with the Rochester players and played CF. Nishioka (when on the field) was the 2B. Even when he moved to the New Britain group, he mostly played Center Field at least until last Thursday (Tuesday he was still with the Rochester Group). Maybe he played 2B after Thursday, but last Thursday against the Red Sox' AA group he was the Rock Cats' starting CF.

I think Dinkelman over Carson and Towles over Butera. Bates has been hitting 3rd in Rochester ST games and I do not see him drop that much. Rizzotti has played only 30 AAA games (two seasons ago) and he will probably start lower in the order (like 7th)

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- 'Tis the time of the year for the season predictions. I took a (unpublished) cut on these right at the beginning of Spring Training and then I finalized them today. I actually had to make a few changes based on events that happened in Spring Training and even teams' performances in Spring Training. Here are my predictions for the 2012 Major League Baseball season, including standing for each division, who will win the wild card and who will win the League Pennants and the World Series. Optimism abounds, since everyone (other than the Athletics and the Mariners) are starting with a clean slate: AL Central: Twins Tigers Royals Indians White Sox AL East: Red Sox Yankees Blue Jays Rays Orioles AL West: Rangers Angels Mariners Athletics AL Wild Cards: Yankees, Angels NL East: Nationals Phillies Marlins Braves Mets NL Central: Reds Pirates Brewers Cardinals Cubs Astros NL West: Giants Dodgers Diamondbacks Padres Rockies NL Wild Cards: Phillies, Pirates ALCS: Twins over Red Sox NLCS: Nationals over Philies WS: Twins over Nationals in 6. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/2004_WorldSeries_Trophy.jpg

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- 'Tis the time of the year for the season predictions. I took a (unpublished) cut on these right at the beginning of Spring Training and then I finalized them today. I actually had to make a few changes based on events that happened in Spring Training and even teams' performances in Spring Training. Here are my predictions for the 2012 Major League Baseball season, including standing for each division, who will win the wild card and who will win the League Pennants and the World Series. Optimism abounds, since everyone (other than the Athletics and the Mariners) are starting with a clean slate: AL Central: Twins Tigers Royals Indians White Sox AL East: Red Sox Yankees Blue Jays Rays Orioles AL West: Rangers Angels Mariners Athletics AL Wild Cards: Yankees, Angels NL East: Nationals Phillies Marlins Braves Mets NL Central: Reds Pirates Brewers Cardinals Cubs Astros NL West: Giants Dodgers Diamondbacks Padres Rockies NL Wild Cards: Phillies, Pirates ALCS: Twins over Red Sox NLCS: Nationals over Philies WS: Twins over Nationals in 6. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/2004_WorldSeries_Trophy.jpg

Ok. Let me put this in another way: anyone has as much credibility as far as baseball is concerned as Reusse; or even more. So your chart beats Reusse's. He doesn't have one. I doubt that he even knows who the Twins drafted recently. Hate to redo the same shot but Mr Reusse and I crossed paths a couple days ago. A couple of Twins' minor league games going on. He was looking at the AAA game: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7060/6881930842_2aaba33f03_o.jpg I think at that point he was having a twitter war with his phone. Really. So, your opinion is better than his, even though his might be a tad louder (and more expensive to the people who pay to get it out there...)

Here is the thing: they needed 2 players for Baker's and Marquis' positions who were already in the 40-man roster. They chose Hendriks and Burnett. They will go down when Baker and Marquis are ready. Would you rather have Guerra/Gutierrez/Oliveros than Burnett for a week?

That's really cool. I think that she was at this site about a month ago too. Wishing her good luck!

Last week I had the pleasure to spend a good time (like about 30 minutes each; more on Oliveros) watching Gutierrez, Manship and Oliveros throw bullpens and in Minor League ST games. And I mean not from the stands. I was about 10 feet behind the catcher in these pens, about 15-20 feet behind the home plate umpire in the games. Of those 3, Oliveros is definitely the most intriguing. Had the pleasure to watch him last Thu by the radar gun station at Ft Myers with Bobby Cuellar who just finished his AAA game and came to the next field to watch him. He was watching him pitch and had this game going on with the kids (Twins' rookie players) who were manning the radar station and charting the game: He would guess a speed (and he was pretty right) And the way he was guessing was based on the outcome... FB 94+ straight and all over the place. Sliders 85+ same thing. FB 92-93 nice downward movement and heavy sink; sliders 82-83 unhittable. So there are a lot of eyes on Oliveros in the organization. Just if Bobby taught him a changeup... I think that the overthrowing is also Gutierrez' problem in some respects. Not sure what Manship's issues are... If I were to see who is the next reliever up, I'd say Sam Deduno

The 25-man roster is (almost) set. The 27-man is When Marquis and Baker return a couple of pitchers will go down (probably Hendriks and Burnett, so that much about the Burnett not deserving to make the team. He really did not make it...) Burroughs (now that he made the team) is out of options. So is Gray. And with Burroughs and Burton making the team, the 40-man roster is full, unless they take Nishioka off (and they should) My gut feeling is that Gray will be this season's Dusty Hughes... he will ride onto sunset sometime in May (or April) I think that one of the current AAA arms might eventually replace him.

Originally posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- FORT MYERS FL. A bit before the seventh inning stretch of today's game with the Boston Red Sox, Twins' manager Rod Gardenhire went to the visitor's clubhouse at the Jet Blue Park and decided to have an impromptu press conference. He announced that, since last Saturday when Drew Butera was optioned to Rochester, Gardenhire has been having severe symptoms of separation anxiety including indigestion, night terrors, flu-like symptoms and other unmentionable things. To that effect, he said, he had to "do right by Drewy". He indicated that he has to "get that cannon arm of his on the field" and he thinks that this Spring Training Drew has shown signs of major improvement at the plate. "He will hit better than Nicky ever did for us this season, write it down", Gardenhire said. He also said, that Drew Butera will now be his starting Right Fielder and will slide in occasionally at Left Field and Center Field. "He is fearless out there, I always liked him and he has deceiving speed". Gardenhire admitted that sending Butera down (or rather pretending to do so) was a ploy to expose the haters and the closed-minded and "them bloggers and commies". Here is an exclusive spy shot of Drew Butera at the Hammond Stadium outfield on a AAA game this afternoon: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6042/7036101445_c635065d25_o.jpg

Originally posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- FORT MYERS FL. A bit before the seventh inning stretch of today's game with the Boston Red Sox, Twins' manager Rod Gardenhire went to the visitor's clubhouse at the Jet Blue Park and decided to have an impromptu press conference. He announced that, since last Saturday when Drew Butera was optioned to Rochester, Gardenhire has been having severe symptoms of separation anxiety including indigestion, night terrors, flu-like symptoms and other unmentionable things. To that effect, he said, he had to "do right by Drewy". He indicated that he has to "get that cannon arm of his on the field" and he thinks that this Spring Training Drew has shown signs of major improvement at the plate. "He will hit better than Nicky ever did for us this season, write it down", Gardenhire said. He also said, that Drew Butera will now be his starting Right Fielder and will slide in occasionally at Left Field and Center Field. "He is fearless out there, I always liked him and he has deceiving speed". Gardenhire admitted that sending Butera down (or rather pretending to do so) was a ploy to expose the haters and the closed-minded and "them bloggers and commies". Here is an exclusive spy shot of Drew Butera at the Hammond Stadium outfield on a AAA game this afternoon: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6042/7036101445_c635065d25_o.jpg

Good stuff. I think that you are too generous with Pavano and Blackburn, btw. Also 2013 is an option year for Baker and not certain whether that will be picked up

Dan Gladden

Understand. My point is that the Millers are part of the Giants' baseball history not the Twins' . Imagine the Twolves having a game with throw back Lakers Uniforms or the Wild with Northstar uniforms. Different franchises regardless of the locale.

I think that it makes ZERO sense for the Twins to wear the uniform of a New York Giants affiliate... They should have worn Senator Uniforms if they wanted to do the throw back thing...

I think that the biggest surprises there might be Hudson Boyd and Travis Harrison staying for EST

There is absolutely no concern about Casilla. He will be able to start the season with the Twins

This post was originally posted in its entirety at The Tenth Inning Stretch. Because of the image limitations I can only post some of it. To see the whole post with 21 action photos of Twins' players from today's game against the Red Sox, please go here ----- Tonight is my last night at Fort Myers. It has been a super blast to be able to spend 8-10 hrs a day at the Twins' Spring Training Complex on a daily basis. This will be the last of my Daily Reports from Fort Myers and it is a bit super-sized: 21 photos in all. Like every morning, I started the day at the minor league Fields. Today was one of the rare days that all 4 fields were occupied and Twins' minor leaguers were either doing drills (Fields 1 and 4) or taking Batting Practice (Fields 2 and 3). Happy to finally snap an action photo of this previously elusive Twins' prospect: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7086/7030763905_344937f012_b.jpg Pretty tight two-seamer grip. And the Celebrity of the Day (he was watching AAA BP at Field 2 and chatting -maybe commiserating- with Joe Benson about haircuts and the Twins' policy) : http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7279/7030763917_d0a747618e_b.jpg Back at Hammonds Stadium for the Twins' game. Here are the lineups (names correctly spelled) : http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7087/6884665344_00f5f258d4_b.jpg I took this one just for Parker. "Thome is my Homey" sighting at Hammond Stadium: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7052/7030763957_ea48124923_b.jpg Lots of familiar faces with the Red Sox: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/6884665386_0d72e4b4f1_b.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7095/6884665406_178d94bee1_b.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7224/6884665416_a22a275bf0_b.jpg ----- The remaining post, including 21 action photos of Twins' players from today's game against the Red Sox, because of image limitations here, continues at The Tenth Inning Stretch.

This post was originally posted in its entirety at The Tenth Inning Stretch. Because of the image limitations I can only post some of it. To see the whole post with 21 action photos of Twins' players from today's game against the Red Sox, please go here ----- Tonight is my last night at Fort Myers. It has been a super blast to be able to spend 8-10 hrs a day at the Twins' Spring Training Complex on a daily basis. This will be the last of my Daily Reports from Fort Myers and it is a bit super-sized: 21 photos in all. Like every morning, I started the day at the minor league Fields. Today was one of the rare days that all 4 fields were occupied and Twins' minor leaguers were either doing drills (Fields 1 and 4) or taking Batting Practice (Fields 2 and 3). Happy to finally snap an action photo of this previously elusive Twins' prospect: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7086/7030763905_344937f012_b.jpg Pretty tight two-seamer grip. And the Celebrity of the Day (he was watching AAA BP at Field 2 and chatting -maybe commiserating- with Joe Benson about haircuts and the Twins' policy) : http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7279/7030763917_d0a747618e_b.jpg Back at Hammonds Stadium for the Twins' game. Here are the lineups (names correctly spelled) : http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7087/6884665344_00f5f258d4_b.jpg I took this one just for Parker. "Thome is my Homey" sighting at Hammond Stadium: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7052/7030763957_ea48124923_b.jpg Lots of familiar faces with the Red Sox: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/6884665386_0d72e4b4f1_b.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7095/6884665406_178d94bee1_b.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7224/6884665416_a22a275bf0_b.jpg ----- The remaining post, including 21 action photos of Twins' players from today's game against the Red Sox, because of image limitations here, continues at The Tenth Inning Stretch.

I would disagree about one single stat: BB by pitchers. If you cannot find the plate in ST, you cannot find it in a Beer League game or in Major League game. The opposite is true as well. If you find the plate, you find the plate (but might get hit harder in real games). Similar with making contact about the batters. If you can time a ball in ST, you can time it in a real game. Might pop it up instead of hitting a HR in the bigs, but got the timing going.

Yeah that's Phil Dumatrait

Re: Gibson: I think they will (and should) take it really easy. Will probably stick around for EST and rehab work. If arm gets stronger might pitch a couple of games. GCL is probably most likely than FSL and if doing really really well maybe a couple of Miracle games. I do not see him moving North (or out of Fort Myers; and it makes no sense really) this season

That's about right.. Still think that it might be Hollimon over Burroughs. Looks like Baker will be placed on the DL retroactive to 3/27. He will pitch a minor league game tomorrow so it will not count for DL placement

This post was originally posted in its entirety at The Tenth Inning Stretch. Because of the image limitations I can only post some of it. To see the whole post with 16 action photos of Twins' players from today's minor league games including top Twins' prospects, please go here --- Double Bill today at Fort Myers: The Twins' AAA club played the Red Sox' equivalent at Field 2 and the Twins' AA club played the Red Sox' equivalent at Field 3. At the same time while the Twins were playing the Pirates at McKechnie Field. Fields 2 and 3 are back to back so it was easy staying in-between, peeking at the action on both fields and concentrating to the one that made the most sense depending on the action. Earlier around 10 AM there were Pitcher Fielding drills on Field 1, with pitchers of all levels of the organization from Extended Spring Training to New Britain, mostly Rookie and A, conducted by Tom Kelly, Paul Molitor and Jake Mauer. Pretty good company for one of the Twins' top prospects, don't you think? http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/7028032665_2743e1db90_o.jpg Seeing this guy participate in Pitching drills with the rest of the AAA pitchers (even though he was just tossing the ball softly) was a sight for sore eyes: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7118/7028032639_301b773fe7_b.jpg (this is Kyle Gibson, for the ones who do not know him) Back to the games. Here is the AAA lineup: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7214/6881930936_028c30eebe_o.jpg And here is AA: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7074/6881931246_94114b4ac7_b.jpg (and, YES, even the Twins' staff cannot spell Mastroianni's and Herrmann's names correctly) The pitching roster for Rochester was Luke French, Brad Thompson and Jeff Manship and for New Britain it was Alex Wimmers, Deolis Guerra and Lester Oliveros. The pitching roster and the fact that Aaron Hicks was playing (right field) for New Britain, made my choice of main game easy. A bonus was that a Tampa Bay scout was there scouting the two Twins' relievers, which makes me think that something might be going on... There were some interesting spectators, involving a big name Twins' writer (not sure if he is going to write anything about this, though) : http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7060/6881930842_2aaba33f03_o.jpg And a certain pitcher who pitched most of last season with the Twins: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7236/7028032549_c2037ba849_o.jpg BTW, since he was cut I have not seen him in a single workout since I have been at Fort Myers last Sunday, so either there is something with him or he will be packing his bags soon... Back to the AA game. Alex Wimmers pitched 4 strong innings. Good sinker with good movement sitting from 88-90 and touching 91 occasionally. His braking ball is decent and so is his change but they both need command work. The one thing that is amazing about Wimmers, if you have not seen him before, is how little he looks: ---- The remaining post, including 16 action photos of Twins' players from today's Twins' minor league action, because of image limitations here, continues at The Tenth Inning Stretch.