Linus

Deduno in for Pelfrey. KC gets traded before the deadline and Meyer comes up.

I'm hoping that Esco starting recently is a sign. I would give him two months of steady starts and see what we have. If Danny Santana continues to hold his own at Rochester I would bring him up in August. One of these two options may work and doesn't require any change in roster / money, etc. By the same logic, Deduno and Pelfrey need to switch spots. These two simple moves could improve the team very quickly and easily.

Can we please stop with the "maybe they will pitch better when the weather gets better" mantra? As far as I can tell, the weather is the same for both pitchers. If they can't pitch in cold weather, perhaps they need a special clause in their contract as its usually not warm in April / May. Pitch better or get replaced.

I definitely swap deduno and pelf right now. If pelf gets it together there will be a chance to start again after Correa is traded. Until then we need starts from someone that gives us a chance. Meyer will be up eventually but I think the twins will rightfully careful protecting his shoulder. That means he will likely get some starts mid summer and then be shutdown after 150 innings or so.

Aria definitely needs to go to Rochester so he can play everyday. I like him as a prospect but he hasn't shown much at this level. Bring him back when the logjam at the corners/dh is cleared up from a trade It also wouldn't hurt for him to show that he can actually stay on the field. He's starting to look like a bit of a china doll.

15 day dl to out until July. Damn Twins medical staff.

Good point on the potential innings limit. I was hopeful that he would get a look this year but that is probably unlikely.

This a hundred times. Maybe Nunez can be that guy? In today's baseball of 13 pitchers you can see why teams are looking for guys like this. I wouldn't doubt that the twins told Bart that Nunez was going to be their guy.

Harmon Killebrew with a strong affection for César Tovar. Spicy sausage and fresh tomatoes.

I've never been a big Trevor fan and thought he was in the process of playing his way out of the league last year. However, I will admit that this impressive start is no fluke - his approach at the plate is markedly different. Plus, he's not really gotten any cheapies that I've seen - he's squaring the ball up and showing great patience in going the other way. I still hate him in the field but with the approach he is now taking, I'm guessing he will be a good enough hitter that they will find a spot for him in the field.

My first guess is that it is just a fluke - he may not hit another lead off homer the rest of the year. My second guess is that the pitcher may have start of the game butterflies and throws more fastballs, which Dozier likes.

I've been watching baseball for 45 years and I don't recall the strike zone ever being smaller. I have watched multiple games this year where any pitch above the belt is a ball. It seems most umpires are ok with calling a strike on a ball off the plate but nobody will call a high strike. Drives me crazy and is ruining the game.

Very interesting, as usual. However, if TD can figure it out, I'm pretty sure everyone else in the American League will as well.

This is easy - Arcia goes to Rochester. This serves two purposes: first, don't mess with a lineup that is scoring runs and winning games. There will be plenty of time to tinker when they cool off. Second, and more importantly, I think Arcia needs to go somewhere to get completely healthy, find his swing and then come up after he proves he can play everyday and produce. In his short stint in the big leagues, there is a disturbing trend of him being hurt and not consistently in the lineup.

For what its worth, it appear the Twins correctly assessed the problem of which pitcher to keep for the 5th spot in the rotation and who to let go. Hendriks, Diamond and Worley appear to be done and they have Gibson and Deduno in the big leagues.

I am mostly disappointed with his performance because, in my master plan, he (along with Corriea and Willingham) would be moved at the trade deadline for whatever they can get for him. I don't think reliable bullpen pitchers are as easy to find as some, but the Twins appear to have some depth in their bullpen so they really should be moving on from Burton. I guess the question really is what is the best method to do it.

Dude, I still do that every time he picks up a ball at third base and gets ready to throw. However, I consider it an improvement because I used to do it every time a pitcher threw him something on the outside part of the plate, and I don't feel compelled to do that anymore.

Sinkerball pitchers are always walking a fine line. Because a sinker is slower than a 4 seam fastball, the movement and location is much more important. Sinkers that don't move or are not on the corners get hit. That's why we've seen so many sinkerballers have a good season here and there but cannot sustain over the course of a career. Scott Erickson was a great example: when he first came up he threw a hard sinker that moved all over the place. He was nearly unhittable. Then he had the dreaded "elbow cleanout" and that sinker never had the same life and he became an average pitcher for the remainder of his career. Gibson has nice movement on his sinker: if he maintains that, commands it a little better and adds better secondary pitches, he could be a very fine pitcher. Only time will tell.

I think Nunez will be up soon but not to play short. My guess is that he is going to be the utility guy that Gardy wanted (see Bartlett). My hope is that when this happens, Florimon is sent down and they give Escobar two months to see what he can do. He probably won't cut it but the way they are handling him right now, we will never know what his potential is. If Santana shows any promise in Rochester, bring him up after the All Star break and give the entire remainder of the season.

Here's a simple but useful way to look at it - call it Bill James in the 5th grade. First of all, nobody gets more frustrated than me watching Florimon bat. Its not even the lack of hits but the lack of productive outs that really drive me nuts, however..... The difference between Florimon at .210 and Nunez at .260 is 25 hits over 500 ABs (call it one season). Assume the majority of those "difference" hits are singles, which they likely are given the light hitting nature of the position. Also assume that many of those 25 are going to be hits that occur when there are no run scoring opportunities. Now examine from a fielding perspective. Given the nature of the plays at shortstop, an error or an extra ball that Florimon would track down due to his greater range, would be roughly the equivalent of a single, very similar to the extra hits examined above. Like above, some would happen during run scoring opportunities, most would not. So, we could quantify the difference as: would the total of Florimon's fewer errors plus the extra balls he would get to be greater than 25? I am guessing the answer to this is clearly yes, especially if you consider double plays he starts on balls Nunez wouldn't get to. Clearly, both players are flawed and what we really need is a guy that can field and hit adequately but in the current environment, we are probably better off with the better defense. I'm sure somebody that is better with sabrmetrics could use OPS to do a similar, better examination but I think, in a crude way, this illustrates that unless one hitter is going to provide much more in the way of extra base hits, the difference isn't as large as people tend to assume.

Everybody is assuming that, if the Twins call, Drew will sign. In my opinion, anybody willing to wait out the market this long isn't looking to go to a last place club. If he is willing to sign, a one year deal does the Twins no good. Its got to be 2-3 or nothing.

Dozier is the perfect example of how the Twins need to proceed to be successful in the long run. Use him for his cost controlled years and then trade him for whatever you can get for him. Underlines the importance of a good minor league system. This way, they always have the money to re-sign their legit stars such as (hopefully) Sano, Buxton, etc. This is especially true for Dozier since we control him until 32 which is the point in time I am not signing any middle infielders to contract extensions.

I got censured for calling someone a moron that basically said that Mauer was an overrated, average ballplayer. Since I am not aiming this sentiment at a specific person I assume it will be allowed this time

This whole thing is starting to give me a headache. Having said that I don't even know what I would do if I was the GM. Here are a few things that I do know: I don't trade any decent pitching prospect for org. depth. If you want to make this trade, fine but call Nunez up and put him at short and let him sink or swim. I don't buy the argument that his poor defense means the Twins won't play him at short - they sold out long ago to mediocre fielders and now have a whole team of them. No way Santana's playing time in AAA should be effected as he is our last prayer for a real long term answer at short. My first move would be to have given E. Escobar a month starting at short just to see what would happen - its maybe a long shot but perhaps our answer is in the dugout sitting on the bench. I've been against signing Drew this whole time but if they are this desperate, time to re-think. Hell, for all we know, they've tried to sign Drew and he is not interested at any price.

I was going to create a new thread on this as this very scenario crossed my mind. Reminds me of when Bill Smith was GM and it seemed that Gardy had the ability to influence personnel moves extensively. When the final roster spots were decided this year, it kind of seemed similar, like Gardy was heavily influencing the decisions. I say that because it doesn't seem like TRs style but I also find it hard to believe he was completely out of the loop. Anyway, it would be an interesting discussion for another thread as it seems like a rebuilding team should not really be listening to the manager who wants to win now. Maybe if that team is on the verge of winning but not rebuilding.