Nick Nelson

* The Twins rank third in the American League in run-scoring, which is pretty surprising on its own but even more so when you consider that Joe Mauer has chipped in very little thus far. I certainly don't mean to contribute to the typical Mauer panic that arises any time he goes through any kind of slump, but the slow start is noteworthy. Early on, he's striking out way more than ever before (27 percent K-rate) yet hitting for no power (three extra-base hits and a .321 slugging percentage in 90 plate appearances). In fact, dating back to spring training, Mauer has 33 hits and 29 of them are singles. That's not going to help change his reputation as a "singles hitter" and it's also the opposite of what most of us were hoping to see with the transition away from catcher. As he's reminded us many times before, Mauer is the kind of hitter who can go on a week-long hot streak that will make us forget all about stretches like this one, but it bears noting that his current OPS -- at .677 -- is the lowest it's ever been at this point in the season outside of 2011. * Mike Pelfrey's struggles this month have been sort of bizarre. It's not really peculiar to see him pitching poorly -- that's happened plenty before -- but I find the nature of the hardships strange. Typically, as a pitcher moves further away from Tommy John surgery he tends to gain velocity and sharpen his command. Over time, the scar tissue heals, the arm strengthens and the pitcher regains a feel for his pitches. That has not been the case for Pelfrey. Last April, while making an incredibly quick return from his elbow operation, Pelf was ineffective but he was throwing strikes and his fastball was registering in the mid-90s. This year his velocity has dropped with each start, to the point where in his last outing he flashed his lowest radar readings in the last three years while also issuing five walks and throwing only 52 percent of his pitches for strikes. Last year he issued four or more walks twice in 29 starts. He's now done it in both of his last two. Pelfrey claims that he's "not panicking" but it seems pretty clear that something isn't right. I've generally been in favor of giving him (and any other starter signed beyond this year) a long leash, but the Twins can't justify continuing to feed him starts if he's throwing like this. From my view, this isn't a "send him to the bullpen" situation. This is a "stick him on the DL and figure out what the heck is wrong with his arm" situation. Maybe that happens if we see similar results on Wednesday night. * With Josh Willingham and Oswaldo Arcia both on the disabled list, Josmil Pinto has taken over as the regular DH and has made good on the opportunity by flashing some prodigious power. Photo by Peter Aiken, USA TODAY Sports Pinto is batting just .239, but his slugging percentage is at .522 thanks to four homers and a double in 60 plate appearances. Among big-leaguers with 50+ PA, he ranks fifth in Isolated Power (SLG minus AVG). Just as encouraging as the early pop is Pinto's strike zone control. He has drawn 14 walks -- contributing to an outstanding .417 OBP -- against just 13 strikeouts. He looks terrific at the plate, which is one of the best developments possible in a season where the Twins are trying to figure out their future at catcher.

Out of the 276 major-league players that accrued 300 or more plate appearances last year, Pedro Florimon and Aaron Hicks ranked 257th and 261st in OPS, respectively. Although they made up for it somewhat with strong defense at key positions, both were among the worst hitters in baseball, so it was puzzling that the Twins entered this season without much in the way of backup plans at either shortstop or center field. Unfortunately, Florimon and Hicks have both been offensive liabilities early on, and their lackluster production now has the club scrambling for potential replacement options. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Florimon showed little with the bat last season; this year, he missed half of spring camp and didn't hit when he started playing. That has carried into the regular season, where he's batting .150 with a .469 OPS through 16 games. Hicks, trying to rebound from a disastrous rookie campaign, once again excelled in spring training and has once again gone flat in the regular season. Entering Sunday's game against Kansas City, he had been hitting the ball into the ground in 58 percent of his at-bats. He proceeded to tap into three more ground ball outs from the left side in an 0-for-4 effort that dropped his average to .167. In 36 at-bats as a lefty hitter, Hicks has three hits -- all singles. Although he's reading pitches a bit better, his swing from that side of the plate continues to look hopelessly ineffective. He's not driving the ball or generating any lift. The Twins will give him every chance to find himself at the dish, but patience does appear to be wearing thin. They were unimpressed enough with Darin Mastroianni -- who hasn't been the same since last year's foot injury -- that they designated him for assignment and claimed Sam Fuld, who himself had been the victim of a 40-man roster squeeze in Oakland. Fuld is an excellent defensive player but he's been a pretty lousy hitter, with a .233/.312/.334 line in 373 MLB games. It sounds like the Twins want to use his lefty bat some against right-handers, spelling Hicks from his weaker side, but Fuld has a .637 career OPS against righties. Needless to say, assistant GM Rob Antony's statement that he hopes Fuld can "add a little life to the offense" is a damning indictment that speaks only to how lifeless Hicks' bat has been. The same can be said of a similar quote Antony had about the acquisition of Eduardo Nunez, who came over from the Yankees in return for minor-league pitcher Miguel Sulbaran. "We believe he's an upgrade over some guys we have," Antony said of Nunez, which again speaks to the sad present state of the position in question. Nunez has a career OPS+ of 87, meaning he's been well below average, and he's also reputed as one of the worst defensive infielders in the league. It's not hard to see why the Yankees were willing to part with him, yet he still might be the most feasible replacement if Florimon continues to contribute nothing offensively. At shortstop, Florimon is a standout defender on a unit that has looked quite shaky at times. That's earning him some extra leash, just as Hicks' youth and ability have done for him in center. But ultimately if these two don't find some semblance of a rhythm at the plate, the Twins will have to look elsewhere. As their recent moves suggest, right now they don't like what they're seeing. ~~~ Since the Twins were able to avoid a sweep by thumping the Royals on Sunday, you can get 50% off a L or XL pizza from PapaJohns.com all day Monday if you use the 'TWINSWIN' promo code. Or maybe you've got a free pizza coming? On Monday morning we'll be drawing and announcing 10 winners for our Pizza Party contest, so if you participated, check in to see if you're among the recipients of a free dinner.

In 2013, the Minnesota Twins rotation was essentially in shambles from the get-go. Liam Hendriks started the team's fourth game of the season. Pedro Hernandez started the sixth. Those two combined with Andrew Albers, P.J. Walters and Cole DeVries to make a total of 40 starts for the Twins last year. Now, they're all out of the organization, buried in Triple-A for other clubs (or in Korea) and unlikely to spend much if any time in the majors. Meanwhile, the Twins have vastly improved their pitching depth, and that's reflected by the group that lies in waiting at the Triple-A level should the starting five experience anything resembling last year's plight. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] As we know, the problems for the 2013 rotation started at the top. Opening Day starter Vance Worley was a mess, and the guy who would have held that assignment if he was healthy -- Scott Diamond -- also endured a horrible year. But equally troubling was the lack of reasonable contingency plans behind the initially slated group, and that weakness was exposed repeatedly throughout the summer. Hendriks, Hernandez, Albers, Walters and DeVries were pretty clearly not major-league caliber talents, yet they combined to start about a quarter of the team's games while posting a 6.21 ERA. This time around, the Twins are much more solidified at the top (their starting five have actually remained intact through two whole turns of the rotation) but ultimately it is inevitable that the team will need to tap into its depth when someone gets hurt or falls into a prolonged slump. When that time comes, the options will be far more appealing than they were a year ago. The Rochester Red Wings rotation now includes two of the organization's Top 10 prospects in Alex Meyer and Trevor May, both of whom have looked sharp in early action. Kris Johnson, the eventual prize from Pittsburgh in the Justin Morneau deal, has put up a 2.70 ERA over his first two starts. Logan Darnell, who had a very strong season between Double-A and Triple-A last year, hurled four scoreless frames in his first start. Incidentally, the only starter on the Rochester staff who hasn't performed well thus far is Scott Diamond, who was among the very last cuts for the Twins in camp. Of particular interest among the group in Triple-A are May and Meyer, who have a real chance to make an immediate impact and become long-term fixtures. You obviously can't make too much out of the first couple starts of the season, but considering that command is likely the top question mark for both, it's encouraging to see that the two have issued a total of three walks in 19 2/3 innings (with a combined 23 strikeouts to boot). In addition to those reinforcements waiting in the minors, the Twins have Samuel Deduno -- last year's most successful starter -- sitting in an ill-suited bullpen role waiting for a chance. He should actually be first in line, in my opinion, but he adds to an intriguing fallback mix that sets the club up for much more pitching success over the course of the year, even if things go amiss for some of the presently installed rotation members.

The fact that the Twins sit at 6-6 after two weeks could be viewed as a surprise in and of itself, given their low expectations and some of the rough patches we've already seen. Of course, anything can happen over the course of 12 games, and that applies to individual players as well as the team as a whole. Still, the first half of April has been marked by some surprising developments -- from my perspective, at least. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Jason Kubel's Defense Coming in, my expectation was that Kubel would prove to be a superior option in the field to Josh Willingham and perhaps Oswaldo Arcia. That spoke more to the height of the bar being set than to Kubel's actual defensive prowess. Not only has Kubel shown in these first few weeks that he's clearly better than both Willingham and Arcia in the corner spots, he's actually looked quite good. He's not fast by any means, but he moves around well out there and generally takes good routes. Plus, his arm is a cannon. I've been impressed by a few of the rockets he's unleashed toward the infield. During Kubel's previous time in Minnesota, I always felt he was underrated as a defender. Even at 31 and after battling a leg injury, that remains true. Brian Dozier's Power Last year Dozier went deep 18 times to lead the team. That was two more home runs than his total in 365 minor-league games. The power outburst was so sudden and stark that it seemed there was no way he'd repeat it this year, even if you assumed he'd continue to be a strong offensive contributor. Yet, rather than regressing, Dozier has been launching dingers at an even higher rate in this young season. Through 12 games, he has already tallied four long balls. That would extrapolate to 54 homers in a full season, and while he's obviously not going to sustain that rate, it's a promising sign that his increased pop in 2013 was legit. Trevor Plouffe's Plate Discipline Over the past two seasons, the same primary issue has been apparent in Plouffe's offensive game: lack of pitch recognition. Outside of a few stretches where he was really locked in, the third baseman consistently chased and played into the pitcher's hand. He entered this season with a career 289-to-96 K/BB ratio in 351 MLB games. When I talked to him in spring training, Plouffe called out pitch recognition as one of his main focuses entering this year, and so far the efforts appear to be paying off. In the first two weeks, he actually has more walks (9) than strikeouts (8), which is a radical and refreshing change. In just 12 games, he has already drawn more than a quarter of last year's walk total (34). The improved approach hasn't yet resulted in a home run for Plouffe, but he is batting .326 with a .446 on-base percentage, justifying his recent presence in the lineup's No. 3 spot. Joe Mauer's Strikeouts Whereas Plouffe has cut down on the whiffs, Mauer continues to veer away from his previous standing as one of the game's foremost contact hitters. Last year he struck out in 17.5 percent of his plate appearances -- a noticeable leap from his career 10.4 percent rate. Early this year, he's striking out in a whopping 24.6 percent of his trips. For a standard major-league player, that's not an extraordinarily high rate (the league as a whole is at 21 percent) but for a guy like Mauer it is striking, even in a small sample. I'm sure there are plenty of fans out there who would trade more strikeouts for more power from the franchise's premier player, and perhaps Saturday's impressive three-run blast pulled high over the wall in right-center is an indication we're headed that way. Mike Pelfrey's Control Problems Say what you will about Pelfrey's performance last year; at least he was decent at throwing strikes. He didn't issue more than two walks in a game for the first time until May 26th (his 10th start). This year he has done so in each of his first two turns, notching seven walks against six strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings of work. Pelfrey is always going to give up a lot of hits, so he simply cannot afford to be handing out a bunch of free passes to further jam up the bases. Obviously it's been hurting him plenty so far.

In 2013, the Oakland Athletics averaged 9.7 runs per game in their seven tilts against the Twins, and 4.5 runs per game against all other opponents. Oakland's reign of terror against the team that ruined its happy ending in Moneyball continued this week, as the A's thoroughly dismantled Minnesota in a rather sparsely attended home-opening sweep. After investing $84 million into the rotation during the offseason, the Twins have received painfully similar results from their starting pitchers.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The first series at Target Field was all too familiar: three games in which the starters dug an early hole and the offense couldn't dig out. In total, the Twins have gotten one quality start from their rotation in nine games during a 3-6 start. They are getting blasted. Meanwhile, their best starter from 2013 sits in the bullpen waiting to mop up the messes that have been created. The decision to move Samuel Deduno into a relief role seemed strange at the end of camp and seems stranger now. He's certainly among the top five pitchers on the club in terms of stuff, and he's been on a heck of a run the last couple years, but he's being forced to sit around in the bullpen while the Twins' signature brand of bat-seeking two-seamers gets plastered all about the yard. Deduno as a reliever just doesn't look like a fit. He's pitching in a role where the situations are often close and late, and every mistake is magnified. Case in point: in his first appearance of the season, Deduno entered in the 11th inning of a 6-6 game. He put a couple runners on base and then ended up letting the winning score in on a wild pitch. In one of the games against Oakland, he turned a three-run deficit into a four-run deficit by balking in a run. Even Deduno's fiercest proponents (I consider myself one of them) would not deny that he is erratic and mistake-prone. He's a wild card on the mound. When given six innings, he can make up for his missteps by baffling the majority of opposing hitters. But he's not a guy you want to be bringing into a one-run game with runners on base. So the assignment seems forced. To his credit, the miscast mop-up man has performed well overall; after tossing three scoreless innings in relief of Mike Pelfrey Thursday, Deduno owns a 3.00 ERA with nine strikeouts in eight innings. But he's not in the proper role and he's being set aside for some guys who are not getting the job done. I have no illusions that the Twins are going to be a playoff team this year, but I think I speak for every fan out there when I say that the type of games witnessed at Target Field this week are quickly going to drain my interest. There should be little patience for these shoddy performances. Kevin Correia's leash ought to be exceedingly short. He's not in the future plans and he's not very good right now. I have more faith in Mike Pelfrey and Phil Hughes, and both are signed beyond this year, but if their results don't improve the Twins shouldn't hesitate to swap one with Deduno and put it on their shoulders to force their way back into the rotation. After all, Deduno is the only one who has really earned anything. He had a 3.83 ERA last year. He was the team's only good starter. What's going on here, anyway? In a lot of respects, I have a hard time getting worked up about the Twins' bad start, mostly because my expectations were quite low to begin with. But some of the decisions that have led them to where they're at are hard to stomach. They're starting Chris Herrmann and Darin Mastroianni in right field within the first 10 days of the season because they waived their only credible fourth outfielder in order to keep Jason Bartlett. Their best starting pitcher from last year is relegated to a mismatched relief role despite out-pitching everyone else in spring training. I want to believe in this regime. There have been signs that things are heading in a better direction. But what I'm seeing so far has me both scratching and shaking my head.

It happened again on Tuesday. A local mainstream writer put out a column that was, to some extent, critical of Joe Mauer, and the reactions from fans were highly visceral on both sides. The piece in question came from Patrick Reusse, suggesting that the onus is on Mauer (who still hasn't driven in a run this year) to step up and carry the team back to respectability. Some saw it as a reinforcement of the reservations they have long held about Mauer. Others saw it as another in a long string of unfair media attacks on the team's best player[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK], a guy who has been used as a central scapegoat and punching bag during the franchise's ongoing lull. What is it about Mauer that makes him such a divisive and controversial figure among fans and writers? It's a question I've long pondered. There's no question that Mauer gets far too much grief for a player of his ability and accomplishment. Traditional media types grumble because he doesn't fit the classic superstar mold, and fans follow course. He shies away from reporters, he isn't a vocal clubhouse fixture, he has missed time often due to injuries and he doesn't rack up big HR and RBI totals. These overblown critiques have led to a swelling of backlash amongst those who, despite not even necessarily being huge Mauer fans, feel the need to position themselves as defenders. After all, Mauer is the team's best player and one of the best players in franchise history. Maybe we should spend a little more time appreciating his strengths rather than bemoaning his shortcomings. To be clear, Mauer does have shortcomings. He's not witout faults, and that sometimes gets lost in the rush to defend him against outrageous detractions. He hasn't been able to stay on the field, which isn't really his fault -- a punishing position and bad luck have been chief culprits -- but remains a mark against him. He also doesn't hit for a ton of power and doesn't run all that well. That means that although Mauer's abilities to spray line drives to left field and get on base at an elite rate are extremely valuable skills, they don't stand out as much in a bad offense. When other players in the lineup are hitting, Mauer will drive them in or get driven in. When the lineup is struggling, he often ends up getting stuck at first and second base. He doesn't create offense single-handedly in the way someone like Justin Morneau did. And that's why, in a season like last year where the lineup was filled with underperformers, Mauer finished with only 47 RBI and 62 runs scored in 113 games despite a .324 batting average and .880 OPS. When the offense is fully functioning, as it was in 2006 or 2010, Mauer is a transformative cog and an MVP-caliber contributor. When the rest of the players are scuffling, Mauer isn't really the type of player who will "carry" an offense, as Reusse beckons him to do in his latest column. At least that hasn't been the case in the past. Maybe it changes here in 2014 with Mauer transitioning to first base full-time. Maybe he moves a little closer to the form he showed in 2009, when he truly could power an offense rather than facilitate it. The signs haven't been real positive to that end, but it's still very early, and the 30-year-old is adapting to a new position while also shaking off rust after missing the last chunk of 2013 and dealing with lingering concussion symptoms during the offseason. I know many people want to see Mauer take more of a lead in driving the offense's production. He's very highly paid (which seems kind of irrelevant at this point), he's the first baseman and -- above all -- he's the most talented hitter on the team. I don't think those people are necessarily misguided, at least until they start calling him an overpaid slap hitter. I myself would like to see Mauer take on a role where he's putting the ball over the fence more frequently, and is more aggressive early in the count with runners on base. If that doesn't happen, and he continues to be the patient and deliberate Joe Mauer we've come to know, I'll still enjoy watching him. He's one of the very best. But unless other players around him in the batting order are the ones stepping up, he may not have the means to make a profound impact on this club's run production.

The Minnesota Twins announced on Monday during their home opener that they have traded LHP Miguel Sulbaran to the New York Yankees in exchange for infielder Eduardo Nunez. Sulbaran was acquired as the player to be named later in last year's deal that sent Drew Butera to the Dodgers. He is 20 years old and has yet to pitch above low Single-A. As a diminutive lefty with strong numbers in the minors, Sulbaran's most likely big-league role is a southpaw in the bullpen, though he's still got a ways to get there. Nunez, 26, has played in 270 games for the Yankees since debuting in 2010.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] He fills a clear organizational need for the Twins, who are thin on quality reinforcements in the middle infield at Triple-A with Eddie Rosario still absent for personal reasons and Danny Santana looking questionable defensively. If Pedro Florimon's bat can't get going, Nunez provides a nice insurance policy. He's nothing special, but he is a .267/.313/.379 career hitter in the majors. Last year Florimon hit .221/.281/.330 with the Twins, and he entered Monday's contest with one single in 19 plate appearances this season. For now, Nunez has been added to the 40-man roster and will be sent to Class-AAA Rochester.