Thrylos

Yeah. He has to make the team. But he did not come from nowhere. 2018: AAA: 2.33 FIP, 32.1 K%, 4.6 BB% AA: 1.21 FIP, 33.1 K%, 3.3 BB% If there were a prospect in the Twins' organization with those numbers, people would had been screaming for him to make the team this season....

FWIW, Ryne Harper had a 2.33 FIP at Rochester and 1.21 FIP at Chattanooga last season, and .364 and .361 BABIP, respectively. Also he had 32.1 and 33.1 K% and 4.6 and 3.3 BB% in these 2 stops last season. This tells a bit different (and more complete IMHO) story than his "5.19 ERA". Re: Romero's spring: He had a 8.38 ERA and 1.759 BABIP. If that is concerning, how concerning should Odorizzi's 13.50 ERA and 2.700 BABIP be? And I'd argue that Odorizzi and Romero pitched about at the same level in the majors last season. If Romero is not "cut out as a starter", Odorizzi is not either. Small.Sample.Size. There other fish to fry in the Twins' pen, including the guy with the worst WPA in the majors last season who they might still be thinking about taking up North... That would be a great addition by subtraction there, if they don't. Romero was hardly the problem last season. May, Rogers, and Parker will be fine at the end of the pen. Harper and Mejia could be fine at the 5th-6th innings. Another arm or two can pitch mop up. The Twins will definitely see how far they go and will act accordingly in the deadline.

Gonzalez has been doing much better the last week. Also of note: He was nursing a right shoulder injury earlier the spring and not sure how much that had to do with his earlier ineffectiveness. Third base will be maned by committee in April with Gonzalez likely getting most of the starts. Sano is about a week ahead of schedule as well, so he might return before May. Lots of off days in April.

Also gone is some guy named Dallas, unless they re-sign him. They lost 37 wins and 500 IP from their 2018 rotation and added 5 wins and 80-2/3 IP. Hard to replace all 3.

I think that one might be surprised to know that since 1984 Germany has had a professional baseball league in two levels with about 30-35 professional teams or so. The problems in developing talent, like with most cold weather countries, are: 1. it is not a school sport, but a club sport (think Rugby in the US) and 2. the season ends in July because of the weather. So there is not a lot of time to practice and kids do not start young, which puts Germany (and other similar countries) in disadvantage as far as talent development goes.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ----- As always you can find all the entries in this series in reverse chronological order here. Here are my notes from the last couple days of Twins' Spring Training games: The home games yesterday and today could not be any dissimilar other than the attendance. It sucked both days with about 1/3 of the ballpark empty and about 6,000some tickets sold only. The abbreviated Spring Training and the pushing up of the opening day really made fans from all teams less reluctant to come down South because it effectively took a whole week away. I hope that MLB will reconsider that next season. Martin Perez and Michael Pineda yesterday and today were at different stages of readiness: Perez was all over the place with his command, even though his fastball hit 97 at the Hammond Stadium radar, whereas Pineda had pinpoint control and a no-hitter into 4 until Ehire Adrianza's unfortunately wide throw at first allowed a Pirate hitter today. Pineda's fastball was at 93/94 all day long. I think that the Twins' bench is done: Lucas Duda will opt out as soon as he can and Ehire Adrianza, Tyler Austin, and Willians Astrudillo will be the Twins' bench to start the season. They all homered today btw. Astrudillo played at LF and was more surehanded out there than several of other Twins I have seen play the position (Josh Willingham, Delmon Young, Oswaldo Arcia, etc) in the recent memory. Mark my words: Preston Guilmet is not making the Twins and will be hard pressed to make the Rochester team. Pretty horrible presence all over today. SS prospect Wander Javier (who left today's game with a hamstring tightness) started both home games at shortstop and showed why he is a top prospect with both his bat and glove. Same with Trevor Larnach who homered last night and Brent Rooker who held on his own today. Javier after missing all season with a non-throwing shoulder surgery looks like he is finally filling up and popped up a few inches. He looks a lot like Miguel Sano did that age (20) Addison Reed had yet another horrible appearance yesterday. I would have said that he is done before I saw Blake Parker pitch pretty awfully today. This pen is for sure concerning.

After two innings his FB velocity and command decreased. He had fine command of the changeup still then. He is listed at 5-11. I am not sure that he has the endurance to be a starter, that's why I am thinking of him more of a bullpen arm, but it is the first game of the Spring Training on the other hand...

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- As always you can find all the entries in this series in reverse chronological order here. Today was my first full day at Fort Myers and I did not make the trip across the highway to see the Twins play the Red Sox, but instead I went to the back fields where the Twins' high A and A squads faced the equivalent Rays' teams. Here are my notes from the day: Zack Littell started the high A game for the Twins and pitched for an inning. Before the game he was working on the pen with the Twins' assistant pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and the Twins' minor league catching coordinator Tanner Swanson on two things: Tweaking his delivery so he uses more of his hips than his shoulders and targeting the lower part of the zone (Swanson emphatically was pointing that the target should be the groin area.) His catcher, 20 year old Kidany Salva, was working on framing the low pitches as strikes, as is the direction throughout the organization. The approach worked in the game, since he got 3 ground ball outs, but let's not forget the competition level. In the game for the Twins there were high rated prospects, shortstops Royce Lewis and Wander Javier; however one prospect who is not a household name, had an eye opening performance: RHP Edwar (Eddie) Colina. The 21 year old Venezuelan who was signed as an 18 year old International Free Agent, put himself on the radar last season after pitching a no-hitter at Cedar Rapids. This spring, he ticked it up a few notches: His fastball that was plus, is now plus plus with a 97-99 mph velocity and wicked movement. His 84-85 mph changeup is a plus pitch and his 88-90 mph slider is average but flashes higher. All of his pitches have swing and miss potential and at this point he has two major league quality pitches. He made it as high as Fort Myers for two starts last season and he will likely start 2019 there as well, but keep an eye on him, he might finish the season in the majors. He was groomed as a starter and the Twins will keep him starting for as long as they can; however I believe that his future is at the end of the pen. He got a bit tired the 3rd inning of pitching (he pitched innings 2,3 and 4), loosing a couple of notches of his FB (down to 95-97) and some command. Have to remember that this was the first minor league game of Spring Training. The aforementioned Lewis and Javier, both coming from ailments of different severity squared at the ball well, and the looked pretty healthy. Lewis had a double and took a violent cut at a swing and miss without flinching, which makes me think that the oblique is healed. There were several interesting pitchers in the game: Undrafted free agent from 2017 big (6-7/245) 24-year old lefty Kevin Marnon showed some promise, but has to tighten his delivery. He is pretty deceptive and can be effective, especially against lefties. RHP Jared Finkel, the Twins' 17th round pick in 2017, is a side thrower with a 84-87 mph fastball, a 77-80 mph changeup and severe command issues. RHP Calvin Foucher, the 10th round pick in the same draft, throws overead and has a close to plus 77-81 mph hammer curve, but his fastball is flat one at 90-91 mph, and he has command issues, which is not a good combination. From the other field, which I did not pay much attention, RHP Andrew Cabezas, the 18th round pick of last year's draft, has a plus changeup that I absolutely have to see again, and LHP Zach Neff, the Twins' 31st round pick last season has a very deceptive delivery. A couple names that made my notebook. As far as position players went, in addition to the aforementioned, Lewis and Javier, there were a few other top ranked prospects: Yunior Severino has a really free swing and a couple of times lost the bat, once over the "dugout" cage. The 19 year old looks like an athlete, but is very raw and lacks discipline. Andrew Bechtold looks more like the tentative one from 2018 and not like the very good hitter of 2017. Tentativeness is the issue here. He just needs to be more aggressive. Not sure what to think of Trey Cabbage anymore. He is a first baseman now and has a hard time making contact. He will be 22 in two months and had an average season finally last year when he repeated Cedar Rapids, but I am afraid that the road is uphill for him. Trevor Casanova, the Twins 13th round pick last year had a very good presence as a catcher, but he made 2 bad throws at second base that should have been easy outs. First baseman Chris Williams, 8th round pick last season, was all business with the bat, hitting a bases clearing double. One to watch. In other news C Ben Rortvedt and another player I did not recognize in civvies, were carrying their equipment to the minor league locker rooms. They seem to be the next cuts from the big camp. Tomorrow I will be watching the Twins against the Nationals and will have additional insight on the major league club

He is yet another example of a former top 50 prospect to sign with the Twins in a minor league contract as well. In addition, Wilin is also able: he hit .330/.390/.625 the last 3 seasons at KBO and his .779 career MLB OPS (albeit only 98 OPS+ thanks to Coors Field) is not bad at all for a catching. Just in passing here, but it should be noted more. Great signing

I'd add Jimmy Kerrigan to the depth category and Akil Baddoo and DaShawn Keirsey, to the CF prospect list. Seems they will stick at centerfield.

Moya has been sidelined with shoulder/back ailments since after his only outing. I doubt that he will start the season with the Twins. DL (or whatever they call it now) is likely.

Big Mike needs another comp: Big Mike Pelfrey... Hope he is better than that.

Jake Arrieta might be a good comparable here and I suspect that Keuchel expects a similar deal with the one Arrieta got last season (3/$75+2 options at $22.5 each...) He would not settle for Lance Lynn money

I beg to differ:

Wishing the best for him, a full healthy recovery, and and even fuller response to his critics with the bat this season. The Twins are a better team with a healthy Sano than without him. Accidents, wounds, and infections happen. At least they are taking care of it.

Let's look at his OPS+ so we can compare with league average (100) April 2016: 107 May 2016: 128 July 2016: 104 August 2016: 99 September 2016: 117 April 2017: 208 May 2017: 131 June 2017: 96 July 2017: 106 August 2017: 121 April 2018: 103 May 2018: 103 June 2018: 32 July 2018: 95 August 2018: 99 In other words, other than a single month (June 2018) in which he had only 40 PAs, in his age 23,24, and 25 seasons, at worst he has been average with the bat, and at best at superstar level. Let's not forget his age 22 149 OPS+ All Star season that for some reason is not mentioned above. Injuries happen. Infections in injuries happen. We should all be rooting for Sano as Twins fans, because he is the single player with Superstar potential with the bat in this squad. I just don't get the grief he gets. Would love a side by side monthly comparison with Kepler's seasons; Not.Even.Close.

His latest outing was not at Hammond. Different gun

Reed was signed by Falvey and Levine...

The guy who taught Johan (and Pedro, and Big Unit) the changeup is still available

Wrong sport.

I cannot wait for Sano to have a .280/.350/.550, 40 HR, 125 RBI season...

Reed does not look right and he hasn't since the middle of last season. I wonder whether he will make the club or the DL-60 if this continues. He tries to throw and there is just nothing there. Just like Perkins and Hughes the seasons past... (The ballpark radar gun has been a consistent +2 mph; I have seen Duensing and Swarzak hit 97 there; will see what the diff is this year when I get down there)

Here is a pitcher and a hitter: RHP Ryne Harper, 1B/OF Brent Rooker.

Based on that, Reed has to be on top (not that it is a good yardstick, btw...)

Bar? Nah. Patinela's Chicken Grill by the ballpark is a close hangout. You may find some Twin Cities celebrities at Duffy's but not players. Blu sushi used to be a (certain) player hangout previously, but not now.