Seth Stohs

Just a few thoughts from the comments above: 1.) Butera was optioned. Doesn't mean he's gone. He was optioned at this exact time a year ago and was up again in late April. The Twins (and many other organizations) value his glove as a backup catcher. 2.) The guys that were added to the 40 man roster in November could not be taken off the 40 man roster for a period of time, but that time is up. I think it was somewhere around the start of spring training. That puts many in consideration. 3.) Hernandez isn't going to be taken off the 40 man roster (or I would be surprised if he was). He is young. He is left-handed. He has options. He had a strong spring and a good track record. 4.) Herrmann is not going to get DFAd. I really, really like Rohlfing and I believe in his improvements. But take a quick look at their stats the last couple of years at New Britain (and half of that time Rohlfing was in Ft. Myers) and see if they would really do that. 5.) I'll never understand the whipping-boy concept of "fans," but clearly it will be Florimon. Fair or not, some fans just think it's good to have one of those. 6.) Cmat- Guerra was DFAd right before the Rule 5 draft (like the last days they could)

Why I Chose My Agency: Jamey Carroll: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com Very interesting look at part of the business side of the game that is not generally thought of.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1479-Roster-Becomes-Clearer-With-More-Transactions

On Monday morning, the Minnesota Twins made several very telling roster decisions.The Twins optioned catcher Drew Butera. They also reassigned catcher Dan Rohlfing, infielders Ray Olmedo and Jeff Clement, and outfielder Brandon Boggs. The roster is now at 31. The news is good for outfielder Wilkin Ramirez. There is really just one more offensive, Opening Day roster spot that is up for grabs. Drew Butera had an option remaining, so he was sent to Rochester. This means that the Twins must be comfortable with Eduardo Escobar as an emergency catcher. More proof of that, the Twins also demoted Jeff Clement, who has not caught much in the last couple of years, but was drafted as a catcher. Dan Rohlfing was not going to make the roster, but he did have a very strong showing. Brandon Boggs was another possibility for the 25th man job. Earlier this morning, Ken Rosenthal tweeted that a lot of teams really would like Butera, but that the Twins prefer to stash him at Rochester for when needed. [ATTACH=CONFIG]3577[/ATTACH] This basically means that Wilkin Ramirez will be the 25th man unless the Twins decide to go with 13 pitchers. Ramirez was once a prize prospect of the Detroit Tigers and has spent big league time with the Tigers and the Braves. He showed terrific power in Rochester last year and had a very strong big league camp. He will be the fifth outfielder, but primarily, he will be a pinch hitter. The moves really leave just a couple more roster decisions to be made. They are on the pitching side of things. There are 18 pitchers left in camp, but that includes Rafael Perez and Rich Harden, who have only pitched bullpens to this point. Tim Wood will begin on the Disabled List. Samuel Deduno also suffered a groin injury in the WBC championship game. We know that Glen Perkins, Jared Burton, Brian Duensing and Casey Fien are the givens. Rule 5 choice, Ryan Pressly, appears to be a lock as he has had a very good spring training. So, it really comes down to Alex Burnett, Tyler Robertson, Josh Roenicke and PJ Walters. Robertson would the the left-handed option, should they go that direction. He does have two options remaining. Alex Burnett really struggled this spring, and he has one option remaining. Josh Roenicke threw 80+ innings for the Rockies a year ago, and he is out of options. PJ Walters could be competing for the fifth starter job (unlikely) as well as a long-relief job, but he is on a minor league contract. Opening Day is one week away! We're getting close now!

Guerra is no longer on the 40 man roster, so he can't be added to the 40 man roster. I wonder if one of the bullpen arms won't be DFAd (Wood or Roenicke) to make room? Non-Roster invites make it most even year. Most often, they're minor league signings of veterans. Jared Burton was an example last year. But, like this year, the Twins invited Alex Meyer. if he had been great (and had pitched above A-Ball), that's the type of player that could get great. That's likely a lot more rare though.

Sure... could send Parmelee back down to Rochester. if you want. Parmelee went into camp as the starter. Hence, his only job is to get ready for the regular season. He's done that. Once the season starts, it's on. Then he'll have to start hitting. No one cares about his batting average or anything like that this spring.

Curious what you mean, tellis that he doesn't take the defensive drills as seriously. 1.) Was he not putting in the effort? Was he joking around? 2.) What was the difference between when he was hitting and when he was fielding.

Correct. No question the talent is still there. This spring was about getting back into some game action, and he did that. He's shown he's healthy, so as others have said, it is up to him. 25 is probably too old to come up and be a Hall of Famer. It's far from too old to mean he can't come up and be a very good player for awhile.

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend. It was fun to meet many of you! Thanks also to 612 Brew for doing a great job of hosting!

Rams is a very good guy. He can hit a bit, when he makes contact, but the fact that he wasn't catching anymore did hurt when his other position is left field. I think that he just couldn't have played at AA and that's why he was let go. He would have been a minor league free agent after the season. I hope he gets picked up somewhere. Oliveros still has a chance to be good. I think that the Twins got plenty for Young and it was addition by subtraction. The Tigers may wonder if they gave up too much for him. Gerardo Ramirez is only 19, but he wasn't particularly good in his second season at the GCL and certainly doesn't profile to improve much.

Where else would Meyer, Bigley and Arcia be playing at this point of spring training? You realize Lane, Elarton and Vasquez are all, I believe, over 30, so they certainly aren't brought in to be impressive, just to eat some innings. Thanks for sharing your thoughts from Ft. Myers!

For those bashing Benson, how much was he able to do baseball activities throughout the entire offseason following his microfracture surgery? He wasn't able to do anything until late January. The Twins stood by his early struggles and he played well after that much more often. Giving up on him would be silly at this point. He was also injured all of last season. Yes, even when he was playing.

I'm actually very happy with Joe Benson's spring as well as how the Twins handled it. The front office/Gardy talked him up as if he was in the running for the CF job and he got playing time. Considering that he was hurt ALL of 2012 (even when he did play, he was hurt), and that he couldn't do baseball activities until February because of the microfracture surgery, I thought was fine. Because of those things, there should be no surprise that he struggled early. But he did play quite well later in the spring. Not enough to say he's ready to start for the Twins, but enough to say he needs to keep playing every day. I hope he can be healthy because he certainly has the talent, offensively and defensively.

Pretty exciting. Batting 5th and playing 3B... they're certainly exposing him to a lot this year. Bringing him to Twins Fest. Keeping him in Ft. Myers. Getting to play in the DWL. Now being put in there against the Yankees. I know he and Robinson Cano are close. Should be fun to watch. I'm actually going to be driving during the game, so hopefully I can listen! Heading to the cities for the Twins Daily viewing party... maybe he'll play again on Saturday!

I thought Bombo play some CF as well, but (according to Baseball Reference) in his three years with the Twins, he played just one game in centerfield. That was just before my time. I started collecting cards in 1981 (brown paper bag full), so I knew some of the names, but it wasn't until Kirby Puckett that I really got into it.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1473-The-Next-in-a-Long-Line

“It excites me a lot. Look at that line. Those guys have all been mentored by the guy in front of them. Me being mentored by Denard Span means I'm the next one in line. I've still got to get to the big leagues, still have to earn my place as a big league center fielder.” Those were the words of Aaron Hicks at Twins Fest when asked what it meant to follow in the Minnesota Twins centerfield lineage of Kirby Puckett to Torii Hunter to Denard Span. [ATTACH=CONFIG]3543[/ATTACH] As Hicks looks to be the Twins next great, long-term centerfielder, I thought it would be fun to look back and the others, the other guys who got a chance to play some centerfield for the Twins and, for whatever reason, were not able to make their name for themselves. [ATTACH=CONFIG]3544[/ATTACH]Assuming Aaron Hicks takes over the centerfield job, he will be the one to follow Denard Span. That said, it is important to note that Ben Revere, who was the Twins first-round draft choice in 2007, a year before Hicks was the Twins first round pick, did play a lot of centerfield the last two seasons as well. And also, don’t forget that the centerfielder who was the Opening Day centerfielder immediately following the departure of Torii Hunter was Carlos Gomez. So many think that Kirby Puckett passed the centerfield torch to Torii Hunter, but that is not technically the case. Hunter was the Twins first round pick in 1993. That was the last year in which Puckett was the Twins primary centerfielder. However, Puckett did still mentor the very young Hunter on and off the field. In 1994, Kirby Puckett moved to right field and the be-goggled Alex Cole was the primarily Twins centerfielder. Late in that 1994 season, Rich Becker took over as the team’s centerfielder, a position he would man through the end of the 1997 season. In 1998, the Twins brought in Otis Nixon and he played 108 games in center field. Torii Hunter took over the centerfield position in 1999, although he had his stint in Rochester in 2000. Matt Lawton and Jacque Jones each got some time at the position as well, but it was basically Hunter’s job until he left for the Angels following the 2007 season. Kirby Puckett debuted with the Twins on May 8, 1984, against the Angels. He was the Twins centerfielder for the better part of a decade. However, the position has been played by many over the previous decade, for various reasons. For some, it was poor play. For others, they left for greener pastures when the Calvin Griffith regime deemed them too expensive to keep. Let’s go back to 1961, when the Twins came to Minnesota. Their centerfielder was Lenny Green. He had come with the team from Washington where he had taken over the position in 1960. He was there into the 1964 season. [ATTACH=CONFIG]3545[/ATTACH] However, in 1963, Jimmie Hall became the primary centerfielder. He finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting in a year in which he hit 21 doubles and 33 home runs. He remained the starter through 1965. He lost playing time in the World Series because he hit left handed and the Dodgers had Sandy Koufax in their rotation. In 1966, Ted Uhlaender took over for Hall, who played other positions more often and then was traded to the Angels following the season. Uhlaender was the centerfielder through the 1969 season. Cesar Tovar played all over the diamond during his years with the Twins. In 1969 and 1970, he was the primary centerfielder. Jim Holt played a lot of centerfield in 1970 and 1971. [ATTACH=CONFIG]3546[/ATTACH]In the 1970s, the Twins had some pretty good performers in centerfield, but they seemed to take turns a lot. Steve Brye played a lot of centerfield from 1972 through 1976. Larry Hisle played the position frequently from 1973 through 1977. Dan Ford was the team’s primary centerfielder in 1975 and again in 1978. He moved to the corner outfield in 1976 and 1977 because of the emergence of Lyman Bostock. For a couple of years in the ‘70s, the Twins would have had an outfield of Dan Ford, Lyman Bostock and Larry Hisle. That’s a pretty strong outfield. The Twins and the Angels certainly seemed to enjoy trading with each other. The Angels also signed many free agents from the Twins during these years. Following the 1978 season, the Twins traded Rod Carew to the Angels in exchange a package of players that included Ken Landreaux, who was the team’s centerfielder in 1979 and 1980. He hit .294 with 50 doubles, 16 triples and 22 home runs in those two season and was an All Star in 1980. Following 1980, he was traded to the other Los Angeles team, the Dodgers, for a package that included Mickey Hatcher. Hatcher was in the Twins outfield for several years, primarily in left field. However, in the 1981 season, he played primarily in centerfield. Before the 1982 season, the Twins made another trade with the Dodgers to acquire Bobby Mitchell. He had 13 plate appearances in 19 games for the Dodgers in the two previous seasons combined. HE came to the Twins and [ATTACH=CONFIG]3547[/ATTACH]was the primary centerfielder in 1982 and played some there in 1983. In 1983, Darrell Brown took over in centerfield. The Twins had acquired him as a free agent in December of 1982. He hit .272/.297/.304 (.601) with six doubles and two triples. He got another month in 1984 before the team called up Kirby Puckett, a singles hitting, speedy outfielder who would go on to become one of the greatest players in team history and a first-ballot Hall of Famer. We read so much about the Twins line of centerfielders from Puckett to Hunter to Span. And now that will be handed over to Aaron Hicks and he is not taking that lightly. There is a good chance that, once he establishes himself, he will start mentoring Byron Buxton to take his position and run with it. Hopefully this review of the Twins centerfield position has been a fun look at the history of the Minnesota Twins. I always enjoy being reminded of names that I haven’t read or heard about in a long time. Those of you who have been fans of the Twins since the early years should really enjoy telling the rest of us stories you recall about some of these players. I hope you’ll use the comments to do just that.

I miss the days when I was just able to watch baseball and enjoy the game without needing all the stats and the over-analyzing of every roster move, lineup construction, in-game decisions, quotes, etc. It's a great game, and there are no absolutes. That's what people need to remember. Sometimes a manager can go against the book and it pays off tremendously. Other times, he can do exactly what the book tells him to do, and it doesn't pan out. That's the fun of the game. Over-analysis and overthinking and questioning every decision every day is what i can't handle well.

To be fair, the Twins brass made him available to every other club during the offseason and not one claimed him, so Deduno is not just fighting the Twins' notions but all of the MLB teams.

Correct. A lot of home run hitters hit those mistakes. Teams have scouting reports on everyone, but good hitters don't miss mistakes too often. That said, I think it's important for Plouffe to be able to do something productive with those outside pitches, meaning hit some line drives to the gap. It'll help drive in some more runs and could take him from a .240 hitter to a .280 hitter. Plus, he certainly has the power to hit some opposite field homers too.

I (Parker) would have to look, but it appears to me that the Twins catchers were willing to let him throw a lot of curveballs. I wouldn't trust Mauer to call 3-2 curveballs, but I'm sure Butera would and probably Doumit too. The Twins gave him an opportunity last year and he took advantage of that. They didn't keep him on the 40 man roster but thought enough of him to want to keep him around. I'd say that the Twins should get a ton of credit for helping Deduno get to this point after spending so much time not being good. That said, I'm also not willing to say 13 innings is enough of a sample to show much. I figure he'll get to Ft. Myers in the next 24 hours or so. He should be back on the mound on Sunday (though I think Walters is starting that day?) and maybe get one more appearance before opening day? I truly enjoy watching Deduno pitch. I just wonder if the 40 man roster issue will bite him to start the season.