Legend of the Arctic

"Has been who never was" would be a good description for Arroyo, who is 37 and has never been anything more than a run of the mill pitch to contact guy. Meanwhile, Pelfrey is just 30, and he's coming off a 2.1 WAR season a year after major surgery. I'd rather have Matt Garza, but Pelfrey is an acceptable pitcher.

Not an exciting move, but not a bad one. Considering that the alternative was Bronson Arroyo, I'm very happy to see Pelfrey return.

He's not terrible. He just doesn't want to get benched for hitting a "showoff double."

Isn't there a minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft? I'm not an expert with the rules by any means, but I think it would be possible for a team to steal Kepler and put him at AAA instead of in the majors.

I'm not a pro baseball player, so I obviously don't have any inside knowledge, but my guess is that it a lot harder to learn to draw a walk in High A than it is in Low A, especially in the pitcher-friendly FSL. Also, if the Twins promote him and he can't handle it, it could wreck his confidence. I'm not saying I don't want to see him move up, just that I can understand why the Twins might not do so.

While we're talking abou guys who need a promotion, I'm wondering why Kennys Vargas is still at Ft. Myers. He's clearly hitting well in the FSL. His numbers are much better than NB 1B Reynaldo Rodriguez, and with Rodriguez's age (27), he's not a prospect anyway. So why not bump up Vargas?

My guess is that Walker hasn't been promoted because the Twins want his plate discopline to improve. He has walked in only 5% of his PAs this year, and he has just a .320 OBP. Sure, he has power, but unless he learns when not to swing, he's going to get picked apart by higher level pitchers.

I agree with the fother posters about how great this feature is. Could I offer one suggestion, though? I think it would be great if you always included Buxton and Sano's stat lines in the write ups. It would save me the trouble of checking the Ft Myers and New Britain box scores, and I'm sure there are plenty of other people who, like me, are wondering about those two.

Aside from the glut of 1B/corner OFers on the Twins roster, I think the reason Colabello hasn't gotten more of a chance is his age. If he were putting up these numbers at age 23, he be the top prospect in baseball, but at 29, it's easy to understand why the Twins don't consider him a long term solution. They probably feel that at his age, there isn't mch time for the MLB learning curve before his skills start to decline.

He might not even be the best Twins prospect right now! Most people rank Byron Buxton ahead of Sano.

That Richardson stolen base came on an odd play. My MiLB app said he stole third, but he was thrown out trying to score on the same play.

Haha, point taken. I admit those still aren't great numbers, but it's a sign of steady progress that he's improving month to month. Also, Hicks has hit 6 homers, which is about 4 years worth for Butera.

Revere has a .288 OBP for the Phillies so far, so I think the trade isn't working any better for them, either. Regarding Hicks, his stats still look bad, but he has been much better as time for on. After hitting .113 in April, he was .202 in May. In 25 June at bats so far, he's at a respectable .280. I think he just needs time.

I really think a "solid #5" is too much to hope for. Over the last three years, the only starting pitcher with a WAR lower than Correia's 0.8 is Nick Blackburn (0.5). His home run rate was almost average last year, but in 2011 it was 1.40, which is high even compared to the Twins cadre of gopherballers. Correia gives up way too many hits, and his strikeout rates are about as pathetic as Pavano's. I cannot believe how utterly stupid this move was; signing Correia to a one year, MLB minimum deal would've been a questionable move. Giving him an extra year and $5 million per season is sheer insanity.

Why does Terry Ryan always have to follow a good move with an awful one? Last year he signed Josh Willingham... then ruined all that good will by bringing in Jason Marquis. Signing Correia officially ruins all the good feelings I had from the Revere trade. Correia is - by all objective measures - one of the worst pitchers in Major League Baseball. And the Twins get to pay him $5 million apiece for two years. Horrible.