Thrylos

A comparable trade would be that of McLouth from the Pirates to the Braves for Gorkys Hernandez, Jeff Locke and Charlie Morton before the deadline in 2009. Before the 2009 season, Baseball America ranked Hernandez at the Braves' 4th best prospect (behind Hanson, Heyward and Schafer) and 69th oveall in Baseball, Locke their 6th overall and Morton was very good as well (and already in the majors and like a #3-4 starter for the Pirates already.) And their Braves' system was stocked back then. And I think that Span will bring more because he is signed to a very team friendly contract.

They've done it before recently when in contention... Not all top prospects (other than Ramos), but not junk: Pino for Pavano, Hamburger for Guardado, Mulvey for Rauch, Ramos and Testa for Capps, Van Mil for Fuentes. Allegedly, Bill Smith was "running the club". I am sure that Ryan was part of the decision making process...

Originally posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- This is the latest update of the Twins' Bench Battle and the Bullpen Battle Dashboards, to track player performance to date this spring. Performances include those in the last game vs the Tigers earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here. At this point, there are 14 position players fighting for 3 bench sports and 11 pitchers fighting for 3 bullpen spots. I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Players who were assigned to the minor league camp were removed from the dashboards but kept in the rankings, denoted by "(MILB)". One thing I am doing differently from now on (Because if I kept the old way these would be very hard to read and very small) is to not denote performance on a particular day (and use DNP if someone did not play) but list them sequentially. An advantage of this way of listing is to see which players played more, which means that the Twins are interested enough to have many looks. As a bonus, because it is getting close to the seasons and the pitching staff has been somewhat of a concern, I am listing the performances of the pitchers who are "locks" to make the team, but do not include them in the rankings. Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7097/7003849219_3083f58d05_b.jpg Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7060/7003849213_cb4c8f2d18_o.jpg Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) : Catchers: ----- Rene Rivera 2.5 J.R. Towles 0.97 Drew Butera 0.73 Daniel Rohlfing 0.67 (MILB) Danny Lehmann 0.28 Chris Herrmann 0.1 (MILB) ---- Danny Rams -0.98 (MILB) Infielders: Chris Parmelee 3.6 Luke Hughes 2.5 Mike Hollimon 2.2 ---- Aaron Bates 1.3 (MILB) Sean Burroughs 1.1 Ray Chang 1.1 Brian Dozier 1.1 Brian Dinkelman 0.76 Tsuyoshi Nishioka 0.84 (MILB) Pedro Florimon 0.55 ---- Steve Pearce -0.31 (MILB) Outfielders: Joe Benson 2.8 ---- Wilkin Ramirez 0.43 (MILB) Matt Carson 0.29 ---- Darin Mastroianni -0.01 (MILB) Rene Tosoni -0.07 (MILB) Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 (MILB) Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today: Matt Maloney 54.8 P.J. Walters 54.3 (MILB) Casey Fien 53.2 Jeff Manship 52.5 Liam Hendriks 52.4 Jared Burton 51.7 Carlos Gutierrez 51.3 (MILB) Luis Perdomo 51.3 (MILB) --- Esmerling Vasquez 51 (MILB) Daryl Thompson 50.8 (MILB) Kyle Waldrop 50.8 Lester Oliveros 50.3 (MILB) Samuel Deduno 50.2 Aaron Thompson 50 (MILB) Tyler Robertson 49.7 (MILB) Jeff Gray 49.5 Scott Diamond 49 (MILB) --- Brendan Wise 47.8 Phil Dumatrait 46.2 Alex Burnett 45.8 Deolis Guerra 42 (MILB) Jason Bulger 38.3 (MILB) Terry Doyle 31.3 (MiLB - returned to White Sox) As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.

Originally posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- This is the latest update of the Twins' Bench Battle and the Bullpen Battle Dashboards, to track player performance to date this spring. Performances include those in the last game vs the Tigers earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here. At this point, there are 14 position players fighting for 3 bench sports and 11 pitchers fighting for 3 bullpen spots. I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Players who were assigned to the minor league camp were removed from the dashboards but kept in the rankings, denoted by "(MILB)". One thing I am doing differently from now on (Because if I kept the old way these would be very hard to read and very small) is to not denote performance on a particular day (and use DNP if someone did not play) but list them sequentially. An advantage of this way of listing is to see which players played more, which means that the Twins are interested enough to have many looks. As a bonus, because it is getting close to the seasons and the pitching staff has been somewhat of a concern, I am listing the performances of the pitchers who are "locks" to make the team, but do not include them in the rankings. Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7097/7003849219_3083f58d05_b.jpg Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7060/7003849213_cb4c8f2d18_o.jpg Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) : Catchers: ----- Rene Rivera 2.5 J.R. Towles 0.97 Drew Butera 0.73 Daniel Rohlfing 0.67 (MILB) Danny Lehmann 0.28 Chris Herrmann 0.1 (MILB) ---- Danny Rams -0.98 (MILB) Infielders: Chris Parmelee 3.6 Luke Hughes 2.5 Mike Hollimon 2.2 ---- Aaron Bates 1.3 (MILB) Sean Burroughs 1.1 Ray Chang 1.1 Brian Dozier 1.1 Brian Dinkelman 0.76 Tsuyoshi Nishioka 0.84 (MILB) Pedro Florimon 0.55 ---- Steve Pearce -0.31 (MILB) Outfielders: Joe Benson 2.8 ---- Wilkin Ramirez 0.43 (MILB) Matt Carson 0.29 ---- Darin Mastroianni -0.01 (MILB) Rene Tosoni -0.07 (MILB) Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 (MILB) Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today: Matt Maloney 54.8 P.J. Walters 54.3 (MILB) Casey Fien 53.2 Jeff Manship 52.5 Liam Hendriks 52.4 Jared Burton 51.7 Carlos Gutierrez 51.3 (MILB) Luis Perdomo 51.3 (MILB) --- Esmerling Vasquez 51 (MILB) Daryl Thompson 50.8 (MILB) Kyle Waldrop 50.8 Lester Oliveros 50.3 (MILB) Samuel Deduno 50.2 Aaron Thompson 50 (MILB) Tyler Robertson 49.7 (MILB) Jeff Gray 49.5 Scott Diamond 49 (MILB) --- Brendan Wise 47.8 Phil Dumatrait 46.2 Alex Burnett 45.8 Deolis Guerra 42 (MILB) Jason Bulger 38.3 (MILB) Terry Doyle 31.3 (MiLB - returned to White Sox) As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.

His first appearance was pretty bad. I think that right now he is behind (not in any order) Waldrop, Burton, Manship. Fien and maybe Deduno and Wise as well

Not sure about that unless they make a trade of having Dozier start, but I think that he and Casilla might be switched in the batting order sooner than later

Inge too in the previous inning. At this point I don't see how he does not make the team

Delmon hits his 5th HR of the Spring

Shipley tweeted that Blackburn pitched 4 innings in the class A game against the Red Sox' class A team and gave up one run, 4 hits, one walk and had 3 Ks.

Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuke!

Yeah. Just hope that he does not make a habit of that during the season.

Rookie mistake by Revere to not let foul ball drop allowing a SF instead of strike 2

Jackson's base hit really showed up Carroll's limited range at SS

2 open spots on the 40-man roster now

I still think that Punto might be an option. He is 5th in the middle infield depth right now in Boston, and will probably go with at most 4 (Pedroia, Ciriaco, Inglesias and Aviles.) Plus his contact is (now) reasonable and we know how the Twins feel about him...

Yes, Butera should be in Rochester (or traded). Actually, Rivera so far is ahead of both Butera and Towles, plus Liriano seems to do well when Rivera catches him. If they take 3 catchers he should be the one who comes north.

Kaat and Blyleven did also

yep. Do the math...

there comes some funny math (and it happens in real life front offices too...) so who is going to be the "Twins SS of the future?" Brian Dozier? Levi Michael? Niko Goodrum? (and if you cop out and say that 'hey maybe one of those can be a second baseman') you'd need to add Eddie Rosario (and yes) Danny Santana into the equation... Not that simple

Got to be a pitcher but still I think that Ryan was just yaking... way too early too even start thinking about the draft yet.

Well, they should put him to the DL if he is not 100% and give Parmelee the starting job. The Twins should get the best 25 men up North and I hope they do it this season

Yeah, I read that. Also was mentioned in the same place that Danny Santana might be the starting 2B at Fort Myers. I have to go back to remember when it was the last time the Twins had a position player start his pro career at Fort Myers, but there have not been many

These 3 together in April (no call ups, they make the roster) : Hendriks (because Baker starts the season at the DL) Dozier (because he will be the starting SS, with Carroll as the utility guy) Parmelee (because he will be the starting 1B with Morneau either on the DL or as the DH) Benson will get called up July when Span gets traded that's my crystal ball

His UZR ratings were high when he was younger and with the small sample size of 2011. His Total Zone Ratings were always low (last season with SSS was -3 runs.) Good ol' fielding percentage: .956 (Valencia's career is .955, Nick Punto's is .958 exactly equal to Brian Buscher's) So, I am not sure about reputations, but he looks pretty stiff out there...

It isn't right