Thrylos

...in the majors, without really having a clue: La Velle posted the Twins' top 21 prospect list from Scouting Book. I am just linking to it without comment, other than someone, before making such a list, should at least check: a. whether someone in the list is still in the organization and b. whether someone on the list had a set-back or 2 from 2011, when he was ranked high Enjoy

I really like Bates. He can make contact, get on base, hit for gap power and occasionally hit more than one out. As a matter of fact, if there are any issues with Morneau, I think that Bates and not Parmelee will get the first cut at 1B. But having his bat over let's say... Butera's on the bench, will be a plus for the Twins.

Liriano's release point has always been a mess. Here is what I wrote about it about 3 seasons ago (the beginning of the '09 season.) If you look at the PitchFx graphs from his performances there (in the linked post) are eerily similar to these ones. (and at that thing 3 years ago I made the same plea as Apostle43, only a tad stronger ) Then I start watching him pitch closer and, yes, he drops occasionally. That is problem 1 and accounts for the vertical variance mostly. Problem 2 is that he has been, more than occasionally, changing the side of the rubber he stands on when facing Lefties or Righties. This is why that major horizontal variation. That practice is nuts imho and a pitching coatch should change that. The camera ankle in the Dominican games was awful so I could not see much this winter as far as that goes.

Great investment

Absolutely. And Capps' career WHIP is not that much different than Nathan's (1.11 vs. 1.20) esp. when normalized for BABIP. The only other factor in addition to WHIP is GIDP induced, because those will erase runners. Don't have those numbers, but Capps' career GB/FB is 0.96 whereas Nathan's is 0.83. Add those, along with the BABIP in the equation and it gets much closer... I am not saying that Capps is as a good closer as Nathan, careerwise, but Nathan's better days are behind him, while Capps' (just entering age 28 season) ahead of him. Definitely Capps in his prime is a better closer than Guardado. And as far as I am concerned, if these were the only choices, I'd rather have Capps than Nathan in 2012.

For some reason, I am confident in Plouffe and Hughes as bench bats. The only veteran I would have been interested to see with the Twins as a bench bat would had been Andrew Jones, but he was already spoken for. As far as the pen goes, I think that the tail end (Capps, Perkins, Zumaya, Duensing) will be fine. Swarzak has shown signs of brilliance in 2011. Burnett was really rushed in this organization after a phenomenal 2009 in New Britain and Fort Myers. I expect at least one of them to have a break-through season. So getting another veteran mediocre pitcher would might have actually not added much... I am sure that if they are contending come July and there are a few gaps, they will be able to fill them like in past seasons.

Actually not really: Probability says that that non K will be a hit 3 out of then 10 times, so .7 will be another out. So we are looking at an extra batter every 9 innings, which is about an extra batter in 9-10 games for a closer... Cannot assume that the nonK will reach base.

I just think that a lot of Twins' fans are biased against Capps, because a. off the crazy trade and b. of his off season last year. I am not sure that the Twins got a great bargain when they signed him, but let's play devils' advocate and look at Capps' career numbers against some other former Twins: Nathan: 3.48 FIP, 9.39 K/9, 3.40 K/BB, 1.11 WHIP/.251 BABIP Guardado: 4.45 FIP, 7.60 K/9, 2.29 K/BB, 1.31 WHIP/.279 BABIP Crain: 3.99 FIP, 6.72 K/9, 1.94 K/BB, 1.25 WHIP/.266 BABIP Capps: 3.88 FIP, 6.60 K/9, 3.76 K/BB, 1.20 WHIP/.289 BABIP and here is a bonus one: Zumaya: 3.94 FIP, 9.01 K/9, 1.84 K/BB, 1.35 WHIP/.267 BABIP Other than the K/9, these are Joe Nathan numbers and definitely better than Yesterday Eddie's numbers (and the difference in Nathan's and Capp's FIPs can be attributed to the difference in K/9s) So Capps really is a better pitcher than he showed last season. Add a healthy Zumaya (to get those Ks) and Perkins and Duensing and the tail end of the pen might actually be better than the 2010 pen...

I have a Fort Myers Culinary Guide, up at my site. I should probably repost it as a blog here as well. There are a lot of choices and it all depends on what you like to eat...

Unless 2 of the other division members lose close to 100 games, there is no way that the Twins will not win the division over the Tigers if they have 90-92 wins. Some of those wins would equate to Tigers' losses. Very rare to see 2 90+ win teams in recent history in the same division, unless you also have 2 90+ loss teams in the same division (AL East is the exception). So I think that about 90 wins will win the Central this season. Can the Twins do it? Of course. Remember 1991 Will they do it? We'll see...

In some aspects that reminds me of the Twins bringing in Steve Carleton in '87. Not that effective, but sold tickets...

Little mentioned fact: In exactly the same plate appearances, Rosario outperformed Sano in E-town last season. He is one year older (19 vs 18) but he has shown more on the field than Sano did so far.

What Seth said, plus by that time, there will be minor league spring training games and those (like maybe an unscheduled B game as well) are free (and fun) to watch. One thing you should note: if there is no game in the Stadium, there is no food and drinks offered, so at least make sure you bring some water with you. You can watch drills on the fields as well, rub shoulders with players and get autographs and all that good stuff.

Yes. That was strange and really does not look consistent, unless there are more than 20 EL guys ranked above 99 in their top prospect list... I bet that different people made those lists, and we all know how that goes

It is worth mentioning that BA is the only National publication (or virtual publication) that has Benson ranked above Rosiario in their Top-x Twins' prospects list. Usually he is 5th behind Rosario, Arcia and Hicks. Interesting to think how this will play out...

This is a regular weekly feature on my blog originally posted there this morning, and partially reposted here Here is this week's installment (The spring training edition) : Looks like one of the new Twins' players will be a daddy again, for the 4th time Interesting news from the Twins' Blogosphere. The 4 bloggers (John Bonnes, Parker Hagaman, Nick Nelson and Seth Stohs - alphabetically) who were part of Twinscentric, desided to discolve their individual blogs and start Twins Dailywhich is a Twins' community that includes for a lot of interaction and has a forum that everyone can post after they register. If anyone remembers the good old Strib blogs before the changes a couple years ago, with 3-400 comments and discussion, this has the potential to be a place like that (and also bury the readership numbers of the now for pay Star Tribune.) So go and have a look! My best wishes to Seth, Nick, Parker and John with their endeavor. This blog post by Jon Marthaler over at Twinkie Town is worth reading. With Spring Training starting, he reiterates The Good Things of Baseball I think that Joe Mauer will have a monster Spring and will continue with a monster season. He sounds like he is a man on a mission. Interesting piece here in the News-Press, the local Fort Myers newspaper. Bookmark that site, btw if remotely interested in Spring Training and the Fort Myers Miracle. Also, check this tweet by Trevor Plouffe about Joe Mauer. I think that it is about time that the heart of the Twins' lineup has a new nickname; and I am talking about the number two to five hitters (Jamey Carroll, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Josh Willingham) : the killer J's. And they better live up to it From the Health Report Deapartment: Good signs of the Spring Training so far: Jason Marquis threw 48 pitches and Joel Zumaya 40 in their first bullpens Sunday. Both were hurt with broken bones last season. Luke Hughes saw another doctor and he will be ready to start taking batting practice soon. On the other hand, sounds like the pollen count or dust count or something is way up there, because both Danny Valencia and Aaron Bates have been suffering with allegies And to make things worse, Brian Dozier cut his left hand so he is limited. Details of how or how bad are unknown. To continue, please go here.

This is a regular weekly feature on my blog originally posted there this morning, and partially reposted here Here is this week's installment (The spring training edition) : Looks like one of the new Twins' players will be a daddy again, for the 4th time Interesting news from the Twins' Blogosphere. The 4 bloggers (John Bonnes, Parker Hagaman, Nick Nelson and Seth Stohs - alphabetically) who were part of Twinscentric, desided to discolve their individual blogs and start Twins Dailywhich is a Twins' community that includes for a lot of interaction and has a forum that everyone can post after they register. If anyone remembers the good old Strib blogs before the changes a couple years ago, with 3-400 comments and discussion, this has the potential to be a place like that (and also bury the readership numbers of the now for pay Star Tribune.) So go and have a look! My best wishes to Seth, Nick, Parker and John with their endeavor. This blog post by Jon Marthaler over at Twinkie Town is worth reading. With Spring Training starting, he reiterates The Good Things of Baseball I think that Joe Mauer will have a monster Spring and will continue with a monster season. He sounds like he is a man on a mission. Interesting piece here in the News-Press, the local Fort Myers newspaper. Bookmark that site, btw if remotely interested in Spring Training and the Fort Myers Miracle. Also, check this tweet by Trevor Plouffe about Joe Mauer. I think that it is about time that the heart of the Twins' lineup has a new nickname; and I am talking about the number two to five hitters (Jamey Carroll, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Josh Willingham) : the killer J's. And they better live up to it From the Health Report Deapartment: Good signs of the Spring Training so far: Jason Marquis threw 48 pitches and Joel Zumaya 40 in their first bullpens Sunday. Both were hurt with broken bones last season. Luke Hughes saw another doctor and he will be ready to start taking batting practice soon. On the other hand, sounds like the pollen count or dust count or something is way up there, because both Danny Valencia and Aaron Bates have been suffering with allegies And to make things worse, Brian Dozier cut his left hand so he is limited. Details of how or how bad are unknown. To continue, please go here.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?223-Fort-Myers-Spring-Training-Guide

If these guys have Brian Buscher potential, then the system is worse that we thought Buscher was never even a AAAA guy. The Twins brought him up because they had a hole to fill. And he was 26 when he came up (think Tolbert - similar guys.) Now Buscher retired after his age 29 season in Columbus.

I think that "Eddie Rosario, 2B" would rank even higher in that list...

I posted this a week ago or so in my blog, but I am reposting it here as well in case folks were interested in going down to Fort Myers for Spring Training this spring: As I promised last Sunday, I have been working on two Spring Training Guides: a General Guide to Fort Myers and a more specific food guide (edit: the Fort Myers Culinary Guide is now up - 2/17/2012). This is the first one and I will cover the area, the town, Hammond Stadium and other places to catch Twins' spring training games. These guides could be useful to Red Sox fans' as well, but I am focusing on the Twins' point of view. How to get there: Unless you want to have a non-rental car with you (a good choice if you are a player or will be there for a month or so, or you live close to Fort Myers) flying is probably the best choice. There is a local airport (Southeast Florida International, code: RSW) served by a variety of airlines, but there are a total of about 75 flights a day into and out from there. Alternative airports are the larger Tampa International (TPA) and Miami International (MIA), about 2 and 2.5 hrs drive respectively. Orlando could also be a choice, but the drive is 3 hrs. The Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) is slightly over an hour drive from Fort Myers and slightly larger airport than the Southwest Florida International at Fort Myers. If you want to drive, the fastest was to get there is via I-75 that goes through the town. From most points of the Midwest or Northwest, the best way is to catch I-75 around the Metro Atlanta area. From South and South West, I-10 hits I-75 in North Florida about an hour east of Jacksonville. From the East Coast, the best bet would be I-95 all the way to Daytona Beach, then I-4 through Orlando and catching I-75 at Tampa. If you live at the Twin Cities area, Minneapolis is about 1700 miles away from Fort Myers, which means about 3 days of 8 hours driving each, each way. This is a map of South & Central Florida, to let you see where Fort Myers is situated in Florida (all maps and satellite images used in this post are screen shots from Bing maps) : http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7210/6870615689_9c49c11ca4_z.jpg The Metro Area and the City: Fort Myers (and, btw, it is not "Ft." Myers) is the smallest of 3 cities in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral Metropolitan area. It has about 62,000 people, whereas the Metro has about 650,000 people most of them living in Cape Coral, a city planned and started in the late 50s as a huge retirement community. Interestingly enough the planners wanted to make every property close to water, so they created and extensive system of Canals. Cape Coral has more miles of navigable waterways than any city in the world, including Venice (Italy, not FL) and Amsterdam. About 400 miles of canals. Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel Island and Pine Island are popular beach front communities with a lot of beach-related tourism. Here is a photo of the Cape Coral- Fort Myers metro: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7041/6870615619_08f2faa40c_z.jpg An important note, especially to people from northern climates: Average temperatures in March are 80 for high and 60 for low, so make sure that you pack sunscreen, hats, glasses, shorts, t-shirts and a swimsuit, if you are so inclined. The city of Fort Myers itself is very easily navigated. Here is a map of the City with the Twins' Spring Training Headquarters noted with an orange Marker: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7188/6870615475_684c7baa2a_z.jpg You can click here for a larger picture The Airport is about 6 miles due west from Hammonds Stadium and the Spring Training Complex. Daniels Parkway (that becomes Cypress Lake Dr in the City) will take you from the Airport to the town and the Twins' complex. If you are on a budget and looking for a hotel, the ones on Daniels Parkway and that area west of I-75 offer good bargains and are fairly close to the Twins' Spring Training Complex. Another area for reasonable accommodations is the S. Cleveland Avenue North of Page Field. Mostly everything can be found within a large triangle defined by S. Cleveland Ave to the West, Colonial Blvd to the North and the Ben C. Pratt Pkwy going Northeast to Southwest. The Twins' Spring training complex is on the South part of Ben C. Pratt Pkwy, just South of Daniels Pkwy. The Twins' Spring Training Complex Here is a satellite image of the Lee County Sports Complex: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7062/6870615187_617fab61b1_b.jpg The complex is accessible via the Miracle on 34th St, either from Ben C Pratt Pkwy or from Plantation Rd. The best was to go is via the Parkway, esp. if it is busy. Miracle on 34th St divides the Twins' part of the complex from the four county softball field. Hammond Stadium, the site of the Twins Spring Training home games and the home of the Fort Myers Miracle (the Twins' high A, Florida State League affiliate) is on the Northeast corner of the Complex. Those parallel lines is the parking lot that can fit about 2000 cars. The stadium seats about 8000 people, so parking can be tight. In addition to Hammond Stadium, there are four full size practice fields and two infield practice fields. You can find Twins' major and minor league players working out in those fields throughout the day, so it might make sense to explore the whole complex or even catch (a free, other than parking) minor league game or two. Some Hotels offer free shuttle service to the Complex, so make sure you explore this option if available. Hammonds Stadium: Hammonds Stadium (and the Lee County Complex) was officially opened in the Spring of 1991. (The year of the Twins' last World Championship.) It is the home of Fort Myers Miracle, a franchise that has Jimmy Buffett and Bill Murray as part-owners. It has been recently renovated and is one of the largest Ball Parks in FSL, sitting up to 8500 people. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7197/6870615335_f8962df2e6_z.jpg As with most minor league stadiums, most sitting is on the infield between the two dugouts. Hammonds Stadium has a nose bleed 2xx level as well and a small grassy field on short right field for fans to sit picnic style. Spring training tickets cost from $25-28 to $10 or so, depending on the opponent. One thing that you MUST note: bottled water in unopened containers is permitted in the stadium, as are bags uo to 16x16x8 (think reusable grocery bags), so please take advantage of that. That said, the stadium has one of the best selections of beers, including more than 20 mainstream, import and microbrew beers and ales. They only sell Pepsi products as far as soft drinks go. I will have a food guide within a week, but I have to mention that there is an interesting variety of food, including pizza, sweet potato fries, fish tacos, deep fried nachos on a stick, and two artery clogging specialties: the Carolina Dog, a hot dog topped with pulled pork, baked beans and coleslaw and the Richard Simmons burger a behemoth featuring a 1/4 lb burger, a 1/4 lb chicken, a 1/4 lb brat, held together by 3 slices of cheese and six strips of bacon and contains more calories that the average developing world person eats in a week. There is an annual concession guide, for the stadium that yet has to be published. Here is the seating guide from the Miracle web site. Also, this is a great article about Hammonds Stadium with a lot of detail about the ball park. Other things: Last but not least, the Twins do not play home games every day. So what to do in an off day? I would chose from one of the following two things: Either drive to the Complex trying to catch minor leaguers and non-traveling major leaguers in action in one (or more) of the fields, or drive to watch the Twins in an away game. Here is a map of Florida that shows all the Grapefruit League home team locations: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7044/6870615789_e450be9574_b.jpg The Rays play their home games about half an hour away and the Pirates and Orioles about an hour away or so. The Red Sox play in Fort Myers. Those are the most convenient ball parks to visit. The next installment will be a food guide (of sorts.) Please feel free to comment and/or share any experiences you had with Spring Training in Fort Myers.

I posted this a week ago or so in my blog, but I am reposting it here as well in case folks were interested in going down to Fort Myers for Spring Training this spring: As I promised last Sunday, I have been working on two Spring Training Guides: a General Guide to Fort Myers and a more specific food guide (edit: the Fort Myers Culinary Guide is now up - 2/17/2012). This is the first one and I will cover the area, the town, Hammond Stadium and other places to catch Twins' spring training games. These guides could be useful to Red Sox fans' as well, but I am focusing on the Twins' point of view. How to get there: Unless you want to have a non-rental car with you (a good choice if you are a player or will be there for a month or so, or you live close to Fort Myers) flying is probably the best choice. There is a local airport (Southeast Florida International, code: RSW) served by a variety of airlines, but there are a total of about 75 flights a day into and out from there. Alternative airports are the larger Tampa International (TPA) and Miami International (MIA), about 2 and 2.5 hrs drive respectively. Orlando could also be a choice, but the drive is 3 hrs. The Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) is slightly over an hour drive from Fort Myers and slightly larger airport than the Southwest Florida International at Fort Myers. If you want to drive, the fastest was to get there is via I-75 that goes through the town. From most points of the Midwest or Northwest, the best way is to catch I-75 around the Metro Atlanta area. From South and South West, I-10 hits I-75 in North Florida about an hour east of Jacksonville. From the East Coast, the best bet would be I-95 all the way to Daytona Beach, then I-4 through Orlando and catching I-75 at Tampa. If you live at the Twin Cities area, Minneapolis is about 1700 miles away from Fort Myers, which means about 3 days of 8 hours driving each, each way. This is a map of South & Central Florida, to let you see where Fort Myers is situated in Florida (all maps and satellite images used in this post are screen shots from Bing maps) : http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7210/6870615689_9c49c11ca4_z.jpg The Metro Area and the City: Fort Myers (and, btw, it is not "Ft." Myers) is the smallest of 3 cities in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral Metropolitan area. It has about 62,000 people, whereas the Metro has about 650,000 people most of them living in Cape Coral, a city planned and started in the late 50s as a huge retirement community. Interestingly enough the planners wanted to make every property close to water, so they created and extensive system of Canals. Cape Coral has more miles of navigable waterways than any city in the world, including Venice (Italy, not FL) and Amsterdam. About 400 miles of canals. Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel Island and Pine Island are popular beach front communities with a lot of beach-related tourism. Here is a photo of the Cape Coral- Fort Myers metro: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7041/6870615619_08f2faa40c_z.jpg An important note, especially to people from northern climates: Average temperatures in March are 80 for high and 60 for low, so make sure that you pack sunscreen, hats, glasses, shorts, t-shirts and a swimsuit, if you are so inclined. The city of Fort Myers itself is very easily navigated. Here is a map of the City with the Twins' Spring Training Headquarters noted with an orange Marker: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7188/6870615475_684c7baa2a_z.jpg You can click here for a larger picture The Airport is about 6 miles due west from Hammonds Stadium and the Spring Training Complex. Daniels Parkway (that becomes Cypress Lake Dr in the City) will take you from the Airport to the town and the Twins' complex. If you are on a budget and looking for a hotel, the ones on Daniels Parkway and that area west of I-75 offer good bargains and are fairly close to the Twins' Spring Training Complex. Another area for reasonable accommodations is the S. Cleveland Avenue North of Page Field. Mostly everything can be found within a large triangle defined by S. Cleveland Ave to the West, Colonial Blvd to the North and the Ben C. Pratt Pkwy going Northeast to Southwest. The Twins' Spring training complex is on the South part of Ben C. Pratt Pkwy, just South of Daniels Pkwy. The Twins' Spring Training Complex Here is a satellite image of the Lee County Sports Complex: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7062/6870615187_617fab61b1_b.jpg The complex is accessible via the Miracle on 34th St, either from Ben C Pratt Pkwy or from Plantation Rd. The best was to go is via the Parkway, esp. if it is busy. Miracle on 34th St divides the Twins' part of the complex from the four county softball field. Hammond Stadium, the site of the Twins Spring Training home games and the home of the Fort Myers Miracle (the Twins' high A, Florida State League affiliate) is on the Northeast corner of the Complex. Those parallel lines is the parking lot that can fit about 2000 cars. The stadium seats about 8000 people, so parking can be tight. In addition to Hammond Stadium, there are four full size practice fields and two infield practice fields. You can find Twins' major and minor league players working out in those fields throughout the day, so it might make sense to explore the whole complex or even catch (a free, other than parking) minor league game or two. Some Hotels offer free shuttle service to the Complex, so make sure you explore this option if available. Hammonds Stadium: Hammonds Stadium (and the Lee County Complex) was officially opened in the Spring of 1991. (The year of the Twins' last World Championship.) It is the home of Fort Myers Miracle, a franchise that has Jimmy Buffett and Bill Murray as part-owners. It has been recently renovated and is one of the largest Ball Parks in FSL, sitting up to 8500 people. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7197/6870615335_f8962df2e6_z.jpg As with most minor league stadiums, most sitting is on the infield between the two dugouts. Hammonds Stadium has a nose bleed 2xx level as well and a small grassy field on short right field for fans to sit picnic style. Spring training tickets cost from $25-28 to $10 or so, depending on the opponent. One thing that you MUST note: bottled water in unopened containers is permitted in the stadium, as are bags uo to 16x16x8 (think reusable grocery bags), so please take advantage of that. That said, the stadium has one of the best selections of beers, including more than 20 mainstream, import and microbrew beers and ales. They only sell Pepsi products as far as soft drinks go. I will have a food guide within a week, but I have to mention that there is an interesting variety of food, including pizza, sweet potato fries, fish tacos, deep fried nachos on a stick, and two artery clogging specialties: the Carolina Dog, a hot dog topped with pulled pork, baked beans and coleslaw and the Richard Simmons burger a behemoth featuring a 1/4 lb burger, a 1/4 lb chicken, a 1/4 lb brat, held together by 3 slices of cheese and six strips of bacon and contains more calories that the average developing world person eats in a week. There is an annual concession guide, for the stadium that yet has to be published. Here is the seating guide from the Miracle web site. Also, this is a great article about Hammonds Stadium with a lot of detail about the ball park. Other things: Last but not least, the Twins do not play home games every day. So what to do in an off day? I would chose from one of the following two things: Either drive to the Complex trying to catch minor leaguers and non-traveling major leaguers in action in one (or more) of the fields, or drive to watch the Twins in an away game. Here is a map of Florida that shows all the Grapefruit League home team locations: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7044/6870615789_e450be9574_b.jpg The Rays play their home games about half an hour away and the Pirates and Orioles about an hour away or so. The Red Sox play in Fort Myers. Those are the most convenient ball parks to visit. The next installment will be a food guide (of sorts.) Please feel free to comment and/or share any experiences you had with Spring Training in Fort Myers.

Shipley just wrote at PP that Ryan said that "going with 3 catchers is not a given" and that everyone who goes North will have to "earn their spot in the team". That's great news, but I wonder how much of this is smoke and mirrors. He also talked about a 3-way competition (Butera, Towles, Rivera) if they were going North with 3 catchers. Another interesting tidbid is that Gardy did not close the door to having just 11 pitchers. If that is the case, there is no way that there will not be 3 catchers; and if so, I really liked what Rivera did with Liriano when he caught him...

The other thing that has to be mentioned regarding Nishioka is that he really is not a short stop (he is ok at 2B) and that his defensive shortcomings at SS were also obvious in Japan. He lacks the arm strength to play short and he led the Pacific League in Japan in 2009 in errors for SS. So that was a known quantity, thus playing him at 2B last season. (In Japan he was an above average second baseman.) What was the surprise was his hitting (or lack of). So the Twins knew they were getting a below average SS when they got him.