Thrylos

No, he is waiting for a mid-season call from a contender (probably close to his S. MO home) who needs starting pitching.

Manship has another option year left

He is out of options Seth, I pretty much agree, but there is a lot of ST ahead. As far as the 3rd Catcher goes, I think (if they take one, since Doumit has been playing alright behind the plate) that Rivera has probably had the best spring so far, since Towles cooled off. These 3 will fight it and each of them have their advantages (I mean between Towles and Rivera, because Butera's only advantage is that he si on the 40-man roster.) but Rivera can throw runners out and cought the 2 great Liriano outings... Also last season Liriano was better with Rivera catching (could be that communication thing) so I'd like to see him make it up north as Liriano's personal catcher, same way that Butera was Pavano's. If he will give them legitimate better chances to win 35 games, he should be it...

I think that it was a coincidence I figured that probably no green guys would be cut (other than Hendriks maybe) yet, but it is good to see that the Twins are keeping the best performers in camp. I still think that someone like Bulger, would have a hard time to stick around

Darn! methinks that cutting and pasting whole writeups like this will get our hosts in trouble... and we don't want that. It's ok to have some quotes from it but the Strib people (who have recently made their site a pay site) will have a major cow if they see that... Really.

I actually, tried to explain what a "tender elbow" might be here. Bottom line is that if we do not know whether the "inside" or "outside" of the elbow is affected it is very hard to draw conclusions (or even guess...)

Originally published 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 game vs the Pirates earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here. I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Players who were assigned to the minor league camp are denoted with MILB and their lines are in italics. For simplicity's sake, I will remove these players from tomorrow's dashboards, but will keep them in the rankings for comparison purposes. It seems that all of the position players who were cut were underperforming and no over-performing pitcher was cut yet. Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7061/6985813973_71bbceb73b_z.jpg Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7068/6985814061_0f569be6af_z.jpg Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) : Catchers: Rene Rivera 2.7 J.R. Towles 2.1 ----- Drew Butera 0.7 Daniel Rohlfing 0.67 Danny Lehmann 0.37 Chris Herrmann 0.2 ---- Danny Rams -0.98 (MILB) Infielders: Chris Parmelee 4.1 Mike Hollimon 2.4 ---- Luke Hughes 1.6 Tsuyoshi Nishioka 1.3 Ray Chang 0.86 Brian Dinkelman 0.61 Aaron Bates 0.39 Sean Burroughs 0.34 Brian Dozier 0.27 Pedro Florimon 0.08 ---- Steve Pearce -0.31 (MILB) Outfielders: Joe Benson 1.05 ---- Wilkin Ramirez 0.44 Matt Carson 0.24 Rene Tosoni 0.2 ---- Darin Mastroianni -0.01 (MILB) Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 (MILB) Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today: Matt Maloney 54.3 Jared Burton 53.8 Casey Fien 53 P.J. Walters 53 Jeff Manship 52.8 Kyle Waldrop 52.7 Carlos Gutierrez 52 Liam Hendriks 52 Esmerling Vasquez 51.5 Luis Perdomo 51.3 --- Daryl Thompson 50.7 Samuel Deduno 50.5 Lester Oliveros 50.3 (MILB) Aaron Thompson 50 (MILB) Tyler Robertson 49.7 (MILB) Scott Diamond 49 (MILB) --- Brendan Wise 47.8 Jeff Gray 46.5 Phil Dumatrait 46.2 Deolis Guerra 42 (MILB) Alex Burnett 41.3 Jason Bulger 34.3 Terry Doyle 31.3 As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.

Originally published 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 game vs the Pirates earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here. I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Players who were assigned to the minor league camp are denoted with MILB and their lines are in italics. For simplicity's sake, I will remove these players from tomorrow's dashboards, but will keep them in the rankings for comparison purposes. It seems that all of the position players who were cut were underperforming and no over-performing pitcher was cut yet. Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7061/6985813973_71bbceb73b_z.jpg Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7068/6985814061_0f569be6af_z.jpg Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) : Catchers: Rene Rivera 2.7 J.R. Towles 2.1 ----- Drew Butera 0.7 Daniel Rohlfing 0.67 Danny Lehmann 0.37 Chris Herrmann 0.2 ---- Danny Rams -0.98 (MILB) Infielders: Chris Parmelee 4.1 Mike Hollimon 2.4 ---- Luke Hughes 1.6 Tsuyoshi Nishioka 1.3 Ray Chang 0.86 Brian Dinkelman 0.61 Aaron Bates 0.39 Sean Burroughs 0.34 Brian Dozier 0.27 Pedro Florimon 0.08 ---- Steve Pearce -0.31 (MILB) Outfielders: Joe Benson 1.05 ---- Wilkin Ramirez 0.44 Matt Carson 0.24 Rene Tosoni 0.2 ---- Darin Mastroianni -0.01 (MILB) Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 (MILB) Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today: Matt Maloney 54.3 Jared Burton 53.8 Casey Fien 53 P.J. Walters 53 Jeff Manship 52.8 Kyle Waldrop 52.7 Carlos Gutierrez 52 Liam Hendriks 52 Esmerling Vasquez 51.5 Luis Perdomo 51.3 --- Daryl Thompson 50.7 Samuel Deduno 50.5 Lester Oliveros 50.3 (MILB) Aaron Thompson 50 (MILB) Tyler Robertson 49.7 (MILB) Scott Diamond 49 (MILB) --- Brendan Wise 47.8 Jeff Gray 46.5 Phil Dumatrait 46.2 Deolis Guerra 42 (MILB) Alex Burnett 41.3 Jason Bulger 34.3 Terry Doyle 31.3 As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.

Santana's ERA was 6.49 actually. But there is a huge difference. He was 21 on his first season with the Twins. Doyle turned 26 last November. I still think that it is too early to give up on him. Give him a couple weeks and he might turn it around. If he does not, back to the White Sox...

Deja vous all over again, since I already commented on this on Andrew's blog, but since there is on going discussion here to, here is my (re)take: I think there is somewhat of a common theme here... let's think of the players who were characterized as "head cases" the last 3 seasons: Liriano Mijares Casilla Gomez What do they have in common? Pretty obvious. I think that the Twins better hire a Latino coach or 2 before they hire a Psychologist. They can afford that if they can afford Nishioka's translator...

Because I followed the Roy Oswald saga way too close this winter, I think that if he wanted to sign with the Twins, he would had signed already...

No comparison. I just noted the fact that Viola, like Burnett, also underperformed at the same age. I am using Viola's turn-around as an example why one should not give up on young players before they reach their prime. That's all.

Doom!!!!!!

Sweet music

The only quasi-surprise was that Hendriks is still in camp, but after the Baker news, this is no surprise any more...

To Doyle's defense (and his performance was awful) : he did not plan to start today (Baker was) so not sure when Baker was scratched and whether Doyle prepared for this game. Same to Swarzak's defense: he was slated to go in the 4th inning so probably not ready when he got in. This is not the season, but ST...

Doyle is really digging himself in a deep hole this Spring.

Burnett was 23 last season. For comparison's sake here are some numbers of some other Twins' pitcher (in the majors) his first 2 seasons: age 22 season: 4-10, 5.21 ERA, 1.508 WHIP, 6.0 K/9, 2.2 K/BB age 23 season: 7-15, 5.49 ERA, 1.590 WHIP, 5.4 K/9, 1.4 K/BB Should the Twins had released him? Any idea who that pitcher is?

Deolis Guerra, Lester Oliveros, Scott Diamond, Tyler Robertson, Darin Mastroianni, Oswaldo Arcia, Aaron Thompson, Steve Pearce, Danny Rams were reassinged to the Minor League Camps today

And because the "article said so", you are going to believe it? There are a lot of fundamentally wrong things about their methodology (and I explained them up there.) Bottom line is: I am not sure whether Target Field is a problem for hitting HRs by LH hitters, but this article does not help determine whether it is. Could be, could be not.

Twins said "at least a week", which means that he is not making the team; not he had much of a chance that far. My latest Dashboard has him battling Florimon for the worse performing infielder this spring. With Parmelee and probably Bates, Burroughs and Hollimon in Rochester, he might be fighting for a job soon...

When Do Fans Get Excited For A New Baseball Season? Speaking of myself, as soon as the last out of the previous season is recorded.

I would not call Lexi's D "porous" today. Matter of fact, Nishioka was ok, too. Burroughs, on the other hand, had more than a few Buscheresque moments at third.

Here is the one paragraph: Big guy 6-5, 228 with good downward plane motion. Cutter, Slider, Change and an ocassional 4 seamer. FB velocity in the low 90s (down from low-mid 90s earlier in his career). Slider is his out (and best pitch) even though the cutter has been good on occasion. Ocassional control problems with FB/Cutter. .

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 game vs the Philies earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here. I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7206/6836979266_b702f6a51c_z.jpg Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7066/6836979328_7114d8bd5f_z.jpg Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) : Catchers: Rene Rivera 2.7 J.R. Towles 2.1 ----- Daniel Rohlfing 0.67 Chris Herrmann 0.43 Danny Lehmann 0.37 ---- Drew Butera -0.4 Danny Rams -0.98 Infielders: Chris Parmelee 4.1 Mike Hollimon 3.0 ---- Tsuyoshi Nishioka 1.3 Ray Chang 1.1 Luke Hughes 0.91 Brian Dozier 0.49 Brian Dinkelman 0.37 Sean Burroughs 0.34 Aaron Bates 0.3 ---- Steve Pearce -0.31 Pedro Florimon -0.34 Outfielders: Joe Benson 1.09 ---- Wilkin Ramirez 0.6 Matt Carson 0.52 Rene Tosoni 0.3 ---- Darin Mastroianni -0.01 Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today: Matt Maloney 54.3 Jared Burton 53.8 Casey Fien 53 P.J. Walters 53 Jeff Manship 52.8 Kyle Waldrop 52.7 Brendan Wise 52.3 Carlos Gutierrez 52 Liam Hendriks 52 Esmerling Vasquez 51.5 --- Daryl Thompson 50.7 Samuel Deduno 50.5 Lester Oliveros 50.3 Aaron Thompson 50 Tyler Robertson 49.7 Luis Perdomo 49.5 Scott Diamond 49 --- Phil Dumatrait 48.3 Jeff Gray 46.5 Terry Doyle 44 Deolis Guerra 42 Alex Burnett 41.3 Jason Bulger 34.3 As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.