Thrylos

This was first posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch and reposted here. The original post can be found here By now we all know that Zumaya left yesterday's bullpen session with pain/discomfort on "the inside of his elbow" after he threw 15 pitches to Chris Herrmann. According to the observers he was throwing very hard. Terry Ryan announced that there will be an MRI today and the results will be announced either late today or tomorrow. Of course, the reaction of the Twins' Territory, especially in the light of the injury-filled , and disappointing 2011 season, was nothing short of "gloom and doom". Here, I am attempting to really go through all those reports and separate opinion from facts, look into quotes, reading between the lines and see what the story might be. John Shipley wrote this report at Pioneer Press, Phil Mackey this update at ESPN 1500, La Velle Neal this piece at Star Tribune and Rhett Bollinger this one for MLB.com. There are some interesting direct quotes from Terry Ryan and other Twins' members. Let's exmine them: "It would be a little less concerning if we didn't have the history he's experienced in his career" What I read into this, is that the injury/pain/discomfort is not that severe and if it were. let's say Carl Pavano, instead of Joel Zumaya, it might have been a different story about perceptions of severity. This is good news in my book, and is reinforced by this quote by Ron Gardenhire: "He's had some issues and had some arm injuries, and we want to protect him as much as we can". So this might be indeed something not extremely serious, but Zumaya and the Twins are playing it safe, because of his injury history. A reference was made about the pain the Joe Nathan experience last season in Spring Training because of scar tissue being removed when pitching, a process that is helpful but painful. When Ryan was asked about that, he said "that would be ideal". Again, it is a good possibility that this is the case. According to everyone he was throwing hard. The harder someone throws, the faster scar tissue breaks and the more painful it is. Danny Valencia is quoted by Phil Mackey saying "He was throwing gas, man," Ryan said that "We may have to tone him down some." It is entirely likely that Zumaya's discomfort is actually a good sign: scar tissue breakdown. I agree 100% with what Terry Ryan said, about Zumaya: "Anytime a guy gets an MRI, there's got to be concern. But, I'm not going to overreact until the results come out. Let's hope it's not something serious."

This was first posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch and reposted here. The original post can be found here By now we all know that Zumaya left yesterday's bullpen session with pain/discomfort on "the inside of his elbow" after he threw 15 pitches to Chris Herrmann. According to the observers he was throwing very hard. Terry Ryan announced that there will be an MRI today and the results will be announced either late today or tomorrow. Of course, the reaction of the Twins' Territory, especially in the light of the injury-filled , and disappointing 2011 season, was nothing short of "gloom and doom". Here, I am attempting to really go through all those reports and separate opinion from facts, look into quotes, reading between the lines and see what the story might be. John Shipley wrote this report at Pioneer Press, Phil Mackey this update at ESPN 1500, La Velle Neal this piece at Star Tribune and Rhett Bollinger this one for MLB.com. There are some interesting direct quotes from Terry Ryan and other Twins' members. Let's exmine them: "It would be a little less concerning if we didn't have the history he's experienced in his career" What I read into this, is that the injury/pain/discomfort is not that severe and if it were. let's say Carl Pavano, instead of Joel Zumaya, it might have been a different story about perceptions of severity. This is good news in my book, and is reinforced by this quote by Ron Gardenhire: "He's had some issues and had some arm injuries, and we want to protect him as much as we can". So this might be indeed something not extremely serious, but Zumaya and the Twins are playing it safe, because of his injury history. A reference was made about the pain the Joe Nathan experience last season in Spring Training because of scar tissue being removed when pitching, a process that is helpful but painful. When Ryan was asked about that, he said "that would be ideal". Again, it is a good possibility that this is the case. According to everyone he was throwing hard. The harder someone throws, the faster scar tissue breaks and the more painful it is. Danny Valencia is quoted by Phil Mackey saying "He was throwing gas, man," Ryan said that "We may have to tone him down some." It is entirely likely that Zumaya's discomfort is actually a good sign: scar tissue breakdown. I agree 100% with what Terry Ryan said, about Zumaya: "Anytime a guy gets an MRI, there's got to be concern. But, I'm not going to overreact until the results come out. Let's hope it's not something serious."

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?246-How-the-integration-barrier-broke-for-the-Twins-franchise

This was first published at The Tenth Inning Stretch earlier this month. I know it is kind of old, but I think that the topic might be interesting for the Twins Daily readers, so I am republishing it here... February is African American/Black History Month so I wanted to contribute by looking at the integration of the Twins franchise. And it did happen at the Senators' years. The Washington Senators, even though they were one of the first Major League teams to break the ethnicity barrier, in 1913 by featuring two 17 year old lefty outfielders, Merito Acosta and Jack Calvo, both born in Cuba (and the team had a long pipeline of Cuban talent, pre-Castro), was one of the last to break the color barrier and integrate. Only the New York Yankees (1955), the Philadelphia Phillies (1957), the Detroit Tigers (1958) and the Boston Red Sox (1959) integrated later than the Senators. The first black player made his appearance on the Senators on September 6, 1954 at Griffith Stadium and he was Cuban-born Carlos Paula (Conill). Carlos Paula was born in Havana on Monday November 28, 1927. He made his debut in the US in 1952, at age 24, playing for the Decatur Commodores of the integrated and unaffiliated, class D, Mississippi-Ohio Valley League. He played as a Right Fielder in 119 of the 127 games, hit .334 and slugged .495 mainly because of 23 doubles and 16 triples; he also had 6 HRs. The next season, he started also in Decatur, hitting .265 and slugging .490 in the first 26 games. He was then traded to the Paris Indians of the unaffiliated class B Big State (mainly Texas) League. Even though the Indians were in the League basement with a 48-96 record, Paula played 97 games, hit .309 and slugged .462 with 20 doubles, 9 triples and 6 Home Runs. This caught the eye of the Senators who purchased him from the Paris Indians in the off-season. Paula started his Senators' career with their Charlotte Hornets A league (South Atlantic) affiliate. He hit .309 and slugged .495, with a league leading 13 triples (he also had 24 doubles and 14 home runs) in 153 games. This gained him a call up to the bigs in September. His first appearance in the majors was at Griffith Stadium on both games of a double-header against the Philadelphia Athletics. He started the first game as the Left Fielder and batted 5th, between Peter Runnels and Jim Lemon. His first action on the game was when he led the bottom of the second of a 0-0 game against Arnie Portocarrero. He struck out swinging. His first action on the field was on the top of the 3rd inning when he caught a fly ball at LF hit by Spook Jacobs (The Senators' starter in that game was Johnny Schmitz.) His second plate appearance came at the bottom of that inning with Mickey Vernon on second, Paul Runnels at first and one out with the Senators leading 1-0. He hit a long out at Right Fielder Joe Taylor. His next plate appearance came in the bottom of the 4th with the Senators really making Arnie Portocarrero work, the score up 4-0, two outs and runners on the corners. Mickey Vernon on third and Peter Runnels (who was walked to face the rookie) on first. Paula pulled a balled to the Center Field gap for a double that ended Portocarerro's day and got the Senators up 6-0. Paula singled in his next plate appearance (to the Center) against Marion Fricano on the bottom of the 6th with two outs. His final at bat was at the bottom of the 9th with Roy Dietzel on first and one out. He flew out at Center. All in all he finished that game with 2 hits, a double and 2 runs batted in, in 5 plate appearances. He also led the team (other than 1st baseman Mickey Veron) with 4 put outs and was perfect on the field. The Senators won 8-1. At that point a new leaf was turned in the Twins' Franchice history. The team was finally integrated. At the nightcap the same day, Paula also started at Left Field and batted 5th between Runnels and Lemon. Paula went hit-less in that game in 4 plate appearances and the Senators lost 2-3. He played in 7 more games that season (started 3 more at LF, played in an other there and pinch hit in the rest) and in those total nine games, he hit .167/.231/.208. His double and the 2 RBIs on his debut were his only ones of the season. He just managed 2 more singles and a couple of BBs in the other 8 games. Paula played the whole 1955 season with the Senators. He appeared in 115 games, had 374 plate appearances, and hit a very respectable .299/.332./.449 (111 OPS+) He finished the season with 105 hits, 20 doubles, 7 triples, 6 HRs, 17 BB (3 intentional) and 47 strike outs; he stole 2 bases and was cause stealing three times, grounded into 9 double plays and was hit by a pitch 2 times. He also had 4 sacrifice flies. His 1956 season was his last in the majors. He played in 33 games with the Senators, hitting .183/.250/.341 and he was optioned to their AAA club, the Louisville Colonels of the American Association. After 53 games he was sold to the Yankees' affiliate Denver Bears, also of the American Association. After 25 games with the Bears, in order to make room in the club for future All-Star Norm Siebern, the Yankees sold him to the Philies who assigned him to their AAA club, the Miami Marlins of the International League. He played just 11 games with them before he was released. His total line at the American Association in 1956 was .319/.385/.549 with 16 HRs and 58 RBI. The next season he played with the AAA Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, then a New York Giants' affiliate. In 1958 he played with the AAA Sacramento Solons (unaffiliated) of the Pacific Coast League. In 1959, he started the season with the Solons who were now the AAA club of the Milwaukee Braves and mid-season 1959 he was traded to the International League (AAA) Cincinnati Reds affiliate, Havana Sugar Kings. We all know what happened in Cuba in 1959, but Carlo Paula's situation there is not clear. He played 31 games with the Sugar Kings and next season he surfaced in Mexico, playing 88 games with the Mexico City Tigres of the Mexican League who were the League Champions. That season, 1960, his age 32 season, was the last professional baseball season for Carlos Paula. Paula died at the age of 55 in Miami, FL on April 25, 1983. The Washington Senators did not sign a US-born African American player until they signed Joe Black (the first African American pitcher in the majors with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952) as a free agent on August 7, 1957. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6802077409_009d8853f0_o.jpg

This was first published at The Tenth Inning Stretch earlier this month. I know it is kind of old, but I think that the topic might be interesting for the Twins Daily readers, so I am republishing it here... February is African American/Black History Month so I wanted to contribute by looking at the integration of the Twins franchise. And it did happen at the Senators' years. The Washington Senators, even though they were one of the first Major League teams to break the ethnicity barrier, in 1913 by featuring two 17 year old lefty outfielders, Merito Acosta and Jack Calvo, both born in Cuba (and the team had a long pipeline of Cuban talent, pre-Castro), was one of the last to break the color barrier and integrate. Only the New York Yankees (1955), the Philadelphia Phillies (1957), the Detroit Tigers (1958) and the Boston Red Sox (1959) integrated later than the Senators. The first black player made his appearance on the Senators on September 6, 1954 at Griffith Stadium and he was Cuban-born Carlos Paula (Conill). Carlos Paula was born in Havana on Monday November 28, 1927. He made his debut in the US in 1952, at age 24, playing for the Decatur Commodores of the integrated and unaffiliated, class D, Mississippi-Ohio Valley League. He played as a Right Fielder in 119 of the 127 games, hit .334 and slugged .495 mainly because of 23 doubles and 16 triples; he also had 6 HRs. The next season, he started also in Decatur, hitting .265 and slugging .490 in the first 26 games. He was then traded to the Paris Indians of the unaffiliated class B Big State (mainly Texas) League. Even though the Indians were in the League basement with a 48-96 record, Paula played 97 games, hit .309 and slugged .462 with 20 doubles, 9 triples and 6 Home Runs. This caught the eye of the Senators who purchased him from the Paris Indians in the off-season. Paula started his Senators' career with their Charlotte Hornets A league (South Atlantic) affiliate. He hit .309 and slugged .495, with a league leading 13 triples (he also had 24 doubles and 14 home runs) in 153 games. This gained him a call up to the bigs in September. His first appearance in the majors was at Griffith Stadium on both games of a double-header against the Philadelphia Athletics. He started the first game as the Left Fielder and batted 5th, between Peter Runnels and Jim Lemon. His first action on the game was when he led the bottom of the second of a 0-0 game against Arnie Portocarrero. He struck out swinging. His first action on the field was on the top of the 3rd inning when he caught a fly ball at LF hit by Spook Jacobs (The Senators' starter in that game was Johnny Schmitz.) His second plate appearance came at the bottom of that inning with Mickey Vernon on second, Paul Runnels at first and one out with the Senators leading 1-0. He hit a long out at Right Fielder Joe Taylor. His next plate appearance came in the bottom of the 4th with the Senators really making Arnie Portocarrero work, the score up 4-0, two outs and runners on the corners. Mickey Vernon on third and Peter Runnels (who was walked to face the rookie) on first. Paula pulled a balled to the Center Field gap for a double that ended Portocarerro's day and got the Senators up 6-0. Paula singled in his next plate appearance (to the Center) against Marion Fricano on the bottom of the 6th with two outs. His final at bat was at the bottom of the 9th with Roy Dietzel on first and one out. He flew out at Center. All in all he finished that game with 2 hits, a double and 2 runs batted in, in 5 plate appearances. He also led the team (other than 1st baseman Mickey Veron) with 4 put outs and was perfect on the field. The Senators won 8-1. At that point a new leaf was turned in the Twins' Franchice history. The team was finally integrated. At the nightcap the same day, Paula also started at Left Field and batted 5th between Runnels and Lemon. Paula went hit-less in that game in 4 plate appearances and the Senators lost 2-3. He played in 7 more games that season (started 3 more at LF, played in an other there and pinch hit in the rest) and in those total nine games, he hit .167/.231/.208. His double and the 2 RBIs on his debut were his only ones of the season. He just managed 2 more singles and a couple of BBs in the other 8 games. Paula played the whole 1955 season with the Senators. He appeared in 115 games, had 374 plate appearances, and hit a very respectable .299/.332./.449 (111 OPS+) He finished the season with 105 hits, 20 doubles, 7 triples, 6 HRs, 17 BB (3 intentional) and 47 strike outs; he stole 2 bases and was cause stealing three times, grounded into 9 double plays and was hit by a pitch 2 times. He also had 4 sacrifice flies. His 1956 season was his last in the majors. He played in 33 games with the Senators, hitting .183/.250/.341 and he was optioned to their AAA club, the Louisville Colonels of the American Association. After 53 games he was sold to the Yankees' affiliate Denver Bears, also of the American Association. After 25 games with the Bears, in order to make room in the club for future All-Star Norm Siebern, the Yankees sold him to the Philies who assigned him to their AAA club, the Miami Marlins of the International League. He played just 11 games with them before he was released. His total line at the American Association in 1956 was .319/.385/.549 with 16 HRs and 58 RBI. The next season he played with the AAA Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, then a New York Giants' affiliate. In 1958 he played with the AAA Sacramento Solons (unaffiliated) of the Pacific Coast League. In 1959, he started the season with the Solons who were now the AAA club of the Milwaukee Braves and mid-season 1959 he was traded to the International League (AAA) Cincinnati Reds affiliate, Havana Sugar Kings. We all know what happened in Cuba in 1959, but Carlo Paula's situation there is not clear. He played 31 games with the Sugar Kings and next season he surfaced in Mexico, playing 88 games with the Mexico City Tigres of the Mexican League who were the League Champions. That season, 1960, his age 32 season, was the last professional baseball season for Carlos Paula. Paula died at the age of 55 in Miami, FL on April 25, 1983. The Washington Senators did not sign a US-born African American player until they signed Joe Black (the first African American pitcher in the majors with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952) as a free agent on August 7, 1957. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6802077409_009d8853f0_o.jpg

Lots of backup plans... about 25 of them in the Camp already. But let's wait until tomorrow and the MRI results to pronounce the patient dead...

TR said the Zumaya's issue is on the "inside of the elbow". Best case scenario: Scar tissue; worse case: TJ Surgery. MRI tomorrow will tell... Hope all is good.

Bollinger now calls it "apparent elbow injury" as well... (Mackey said so pretty much when happened.)

The "Dark Horse" statement is because of his positioning in the "Prospect Lists" . Not on top 10 for BA & Keith Law and La Velle; Seth and Twinkie Town have them at #20, Mayo & Goldstein have him at 12. You'd think a first rounder who has not thrown a pitch in pro ball, would get more love, wouldn't you ?

Got ESPN 1500 on and there is nothing there yet... Heyman tweeted that "Zumaya felt something". The Twins' beat writers say he's not talking to the media but they are waiting Ryan to announce something. Mackey said "it looks like elbow" . But hard to tell unless he gets it examined. Could be muscular as well... Who knows. Too early to start getting upset about it. Hope it is nothing

This is good stuff... And I suspect that if someone was doing a similar analysis for the 2008 team (that won 88) based on the 2007 results, the conclusion would be similar: a .500 team at best (and most teams are .500 teams on paper.) What happened in 08 and can happen again in 12 is that a few players stepped up and exceeded expectations. And if that happens, a 82 win team, easily becomes a 90 win team...

Slama is not even in the Major League Camp this Spring Training... I think that his days with the organization are pretty much over for some reason, unfortunately...

Exactly. And if anyone looks at Burnett's New Britain numbers before he was rushed, would have to agree

That's 23 need to add a couple more

This is just purely for fun, and I just want to see how wrong we can all be without a single Spring Training game played yet So I am looking at your opinions about who will make the team, after I give you mine. I think that the following are locks (alphabetically): Position players (will carry 13 or 14) : Jamey Caroll, Alexi Casilla, Ryan Doumit, Luke Hughes, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Trevor Plouffe, Ben Revere, Denard Span, Danny Valencia, Josh Willingham (I assume no DL for anyone - call me an optimist) so there are 2 or 3 spots left. Pitchers (will carry 11 or 12) : Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, Matt Capps, Brian Duensing, Francisco Liriano, Jason Marquis, Carl Pavano, Glen Perkins, Anthony Swarzak, Joel Zumaya so there is space for 1 or 2. Here are my guesses: They will go with 13 position players and 12 pitchers. The position players who will make the team are Aaron Bates and Darin Mastroianni and the pitchers who make the team are Terry Doyle and Alex Burnett. What do you think?

that's what I thought, but he is still listed as 19. He wanted to change, for sure, but I wonder whether he got AP'd

The problem with this is that Doumit played a grand total of 35 MLB and 4 MiLB games at first base and the bulk of those in 2006. (BTW, that was the last time that Willingham caught ) And he was not that hot with the glove there, but I hope he gets some reps at some point. On the other hand, I suspect that Parmelee will probably get most of the reps at 1B during ST. As a comparison, Luke Hughes played 36 games at 1B last season (and pretty well) with the Twins.

I hope, but still a tad too early to tell... Everyone thought that Doc Gooden was going to be a Hall of Famer after his 8 first seasons

Originally posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch Every new season there are a lot of old faces who are not any longer with a team and a lot of new faces who are replacing them. Usually a new player is assigned one of the departed players' uniform numbers. Here are the matches between the old and the new uniform numbers. Three of them are unassigned and Chris Parmelee switched his number from 2011. Joel Zumaya and Darin Mastoianni have not been formally assigned numbers yet. Left the team: 5 Michal Cuddyer, now: J.R. Towles 16 Jason Kubel, now: Josh Willingham 18 Jason Repko, now: Ryan Doumit 20 Matt Tolbert, now: - 21 Delmon Young, now: Jason Marquis 25 Jim Thome, now: - 27 Steve Holm, now: Chris Parmelee 36 Joe Nathan, now: - 37 Jim Hoey, now: Sean Burroughs 44 Chuck James, now: Matt Maloney 50 Jose Mijares, now: Jason Bulger 56 Dusty Hughes, now: Terry Doyle 59 Kevin Slowey, now: Esmerling Vasquez 61 Eric Hacker, now: Jared Burton Changed Number: 64 Chris Parmelee, now: Tyler Robertson A list of all the numbers for the Twins' spring training attendees can be found here

Originally posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch Every new season there are a lot of old faces who are not any longer with a team and a lot of new faces who are replacing them. Usually a new player is assigned one of the departed players' uniform numbers. Here are the matches between the old and the new uniform numbers. Three of them are unassigned and Chris Parmelee switched his number from 2011. Joel Zumaya and Darin Mastoianni have not been formally assigned numbers yet. Left the team: 5 Michal Cuddyer, now: J.R. Towles 16 Jason Kubel, now: Josh Willingham 18 Jason Repko, now: Ryan Doumit 20 Matt Tolbert, now: - 21 Delmon Young, now: Jason Marquis 25 Jim Thome, now: - 27 Steve Holm, now: Chris Parmelee 36 Joe Nathan, now: - 37 Jim Hoey, now: Sean Burroughs 44 Chuck James, now: Matt Maloney 50 Jose Mijares, now: Jason Bulger 56 Dusty Hughes, now: Terry Doyle 59 Kevin Slowey, now: Esmerling Vasquez 61 Eric Hacker, now: Jared Burton Changed Number: 64 Chris Parmelee, now: Tyler Robertson A list of all the numbers for the Twins' spring training attendees can be found here

No much panic or anything ? As long as Morneau is not retired, adding another player does not make much sense.

Has to be the Twins... they should had been highter

I think that if Morneau is not the 1B, Aaron Bates will probably make the team instead of Parmelee and will split time there with Doumit and Luke Hughes... There is no way you keep Doumit on the bench and start Parmelee and Parmelee needs to play every day (thus he will do that in Rochester)

Still too early to tell... Let's see him play some games and see how he plays and then we can figure it out. As a reminder, last spring training he played only 4 games and was hitless in 10 PAs. Still got a month and a half to see in what shape he is.