Parker Hageman

I'm not suggesting it doesn't happen. In younger players like Hunter and Morneau, they were just developing these skills in their prime seasons and this is something you see routinely from players who are acclimating to the league. Both basically reached the point where they were matching their minor league walk rates. Doumit, as you mentioned, is entering his age-31 season. I don't envision a leap forward for him in the walk department but even a climb to 7-8% is not out of the question.

Twins President Dave St Peter announced today via Twitter that the Twins will add beers from Surly and Fulton Brewing Companies to the Target Field arsenal this season, making the two additions early favorites for best free agent signings of the offseason. Here's the roster of Surly beverages provided by John Bonnes' Twitter feed: If you want some more hardcore beverages to wash away or celebrate a big loss or win, the Twins Pubs are now 2 Gingers Pubs and will serve the famous Big Ginger drinks which Aaron Gleeman loves so much. Other food items announced include what will surely be the death of me, a buffalo mac and cheese dish, along with several other items that will undoubtedly please the crowd in 2012: Here's a tantalizing shot of the mac and cheese and bacon sloppy joes courtesy of the Minnesota Twins Twitter feed. Go ahead, dive in face first like Nick Punto: I think I speak for all beer snobs and foodies when I say that the home opener cannot come around fast enough.

Thanks for the boob...er...Thome pic. Glad to see those are still around. Gotta agree with Lein, that's a circle change - for whatever reason he tucks his pinky in.

I watched Albers working in the bullpen on the back fields at Hammond. I was thoroughly impressed with his command and repertoire.

The St Paul Pioneer Press's Ben Goessling visited with Joe Mauer recently about the dreadful 2011 season. The piece is worth reading beginning to end but here's some of the key quotes out of the article: Mauer on the '11 clubhouse vibe: On why the communication problem regarding his injuries: The article goes on to say that the Twins encourage Mauer to workout more in the offseason as he is now approaching his age-30 season and he spent time with Tom Kelly honing his craft at first base. The biggest takeaway though is that he sound healthy and happy.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?388-Doumit-demonstrating-patience

[ATTACH=CONFIG]480[/ATTACH]When the Twins signed Ryan Doumit, they gained a switch-hitter who had a modern level of pop and decent batting average ability thanks to a high line drive rate. What they did not necessarily sign was a patient hitter who has been able to coax walks. The former Pittsburgh Pirate has held a 6.8% walk rate for his career, a mark that is slightly below the average of 8%. However, this spring, bolstered by nine walks in 54 plate appearances, Doumit has turned in a 15% walk rate. Could Doumit have turned a corner in his career? Has he added another dimension to his offensive game? Maybe this is a step forward for Doumit. While we should never base anything on a sampling of 50 plate appearances, who’s to say that the switch-hitter has not honed his strike zone judgment or made a conceited effort to improve his discipline? Interestingly enough, Doumit’s plate discipline numbers from a year ago paint a story of a hitter who has been scrutinizing pitches more. According to Fangraphs.com, prior to the 2011 season, Doumit had an out-of-zone swing rate of over 32% in each of the previous three seasons, a rate well above the average. This past season, he whittled that down to 26%, which was below the average. So it is possible that the walks amassed in Florida are the fruits of his labors that he implemented in 2011 but it seems unlikely. This is spring training. It is chock full of erratic pitchers, minor league arms who may be intimidated of major leaguers and those who are just “working on things”. Doumit’s sudden spike in a little over 50 plate appearances has little or no statistical bearings on his future production. After all, players have monster springs more often than not regress to their true levels. Consider this: a year ago, Jason Repko drew a team-high 10 walks in Grapefruit League action – a whopping 15% walk rate for the fourth outfielder. When the regular season rolled around and those pitchers who lack command were vetted, Repko’s walk rate came crashing back down to earth, finishing the year with a 4.2% walk rate over his 144 plate appearances. What’s more is that there are not a lot of hitters who have had a sudden and sustained walk rate spike in the middle of their careers. The Oakland A’s Moneyball philosophy was to draft patient hitters because they could “teach” power (or inject them with steroids or whatever) but they could not teach discipline. Doumit, while sporting an 8% walk rate in the minors, is unlikely to have his numbers transform radically this late in his career. So, will Doumit’s spring patience carry into the regular season? It’s improbable, but not impossible. In the end, he likely finishes the year with a walk rate close to his career average of 7%.

LaVelle reports that Chris Parmelee is now in for Burroughs who "tweaked" his back getting off the bus today (and is expected to be fine).

And all-time Gophers' reception leader and current Denver Bronco and Minnesota native, yada, yada. Eric Decker has landed himself a purdy girl: http://www.foxsportsnorth.com/04/02/12/Decker-engaged-to-country-music-singer/landing_gophers.html?blockID=700658&feedID=3697

You know, Lance Ray. Popular band in the 90s. Sang "Fly", "Every Morning" and "Someday".

Here's Tampa's lineup per LaVelle: Desmond Jennings, CF Luke Scott, DH Evan Longoria, 3B Ben Zobrist, RF Carlos Pena, 1B Jeff Keppinger, 2B Jose Molina, C Jeff Salazar, LF Sean Rodriguez, SS David Price, LHP

John, Wei-Yin Chen is Taiwanese, not Japanese.

I don't think I took anything out of context. The link was provided for anyone who wanted to read the original (non-paywalled) quote. I believe most everyone here should understand that it was speculation, particularly when it comes from Jim Bowden. Easy...

The Twins will be looking to trade Justin Morneau, perhaps in the near future, writes ESPN.com's resident former general manager Jim Bowden in his "10 bold predictions for 2012" post. And, Bowden says, the the Rangers will be the ones acquiring the big first baseman: Of course, for this plan to work, Morneau would need to (1) remain healthy and (2) produce at a high level. Truthfully, I don't hate the idea of moving Morneau - even if it comes from Bowden. Morneau, who will turn 31 in May, has battled plenty of injuries and once a player hits 30, the wear and tear does not exactly slow down. Combine that with the fact that he's scheduled to make an additional $14 million next year in his contract walk-year, if the Twins can gain some prospects from the embarrassingly rich Texas Rangers farm system and open up $14 million in salary, it may prove to be a prudent move despite being ripe for some fan backlash.

I don't know if we should say a ton -- especially in the past two years where it was 57 games (and who knows how many actual innings out there). He played a lot more at the lower levels. It will be interesting to see where he is at now a few years removed from playing there regularly. As the range factor indicates, I don't think he can be any worse than Cuddyer out there.

Offensively, no. This spring he's 12-for-37 (.324) with a pair of doubles and three stolen bases. The only comments I've heard is that he is having troubles picking the ball off the ground and that his arm still is not up to snuff (which makes the choice of using him as a RF odd...). There was one ball in the Yankees game (I believe...one of the televised ones anyways) in which he made a few steps in and the ball was pounded to the warning track. Happens to everyone but seeing that he rates poorly on making plays behind him, I can see that being more of a trend than a mirage.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?358-Gardenhire-announces-his-outfield-plans

[ATTACH=CONFIG]427[/ATTACH]After months of expecting Josh Willingham to move from left field, the outfield position he has played the most in his career, across the turf to right field, Ron Gardenhire has switched courses on that plan. Back in February, Gardenhire acknowledged that the experiment of moving Willingham to right field might not work but that they would be ready if he would be unable to adapt to the new position: "That's what we are going to do. We're going to try to figure this out in Spring Training. We're going to start out this way and if it looks like it's working OK and he's getting used to that, he'll be out in right field. But if it looks like he's not comfortable in right field, I know the other guys can do it for a fact." Prior to Sunday's game, the Twins manager said that Willingham would be his left fielder and not his right fielder has was initially intended. "Let's call Josh Willingham my left fielder," Gardenhire said before Sunday afternoon's game with the Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium. Those who have watched him play have rated his arm as being below average. According to Fangraphs.com's Fans Scouting Report his Arm Strength has rated a 45 on a scale of 100 and an even slower release (40). This is not exactly ideal for right field play where those individuals have to make the longer throw to third base in addition to home plate making his transfer back to left field a better idea. Of course, voters think little of his range as well. In those categories - First Step and Speed - Willingham rated 34 and 37 respectively. Meanwhile, the BillJamesOnline.net Plus/Minus system says that he has had troubles over his career in left going back on balls, finishing -21 on deep balls dating back to 2008. Perhaps it was one of both of these factors that played a role in Gardenhire's decision to move Willingham back to his more familiar position. So who is going to be the starting right fielder? Gardenhire said the race is between the hot-hitting Chris Parmelee, Trevor Plouffe and Ben Revere (who is likely going to wind up the team's fourth outfielder, according to the team's assistant general manager Rob Antony on 1500ESPN.com). Parmelee's clearly earned an opportunity to play for this team with both is previous September performance as well as his torrid spring. However, he is fairly raw when it comes to outfield play. In the past two years in the minors, he's played 57 games in right field. His range factor of 1.86 (RF/G) over his full minor league playing time in right suggests that he isn't a significant liability (by comparison Michael Cuddyer's career range factor in right is 1.87) but he's not going to be a coverage guy in the field either. Likewise Plouffe is also green when it comes to the outfield position, having only played 21 games in the outfield in his professional career. Revere, who was the early favorite over the winter, had worked hard during the offseason to get his arm strength up to snuff (whereas Willingham's rated a 45 on Arm Strength, Revere was rated a 4) but the organization seems to have cooled on the idea of him being a starter. While he has been an amazing fly-tracker, reports from Fort Myers is that Revere is struggling when he has to charge balls on the ground. Although neither Gardenhire nor Antony mentioned this in their discussion of the outfield alignment, Ryan Doumit's name will very likely be mixed in the lineup in the outfield - particularly if Justin Morneau is a DH and Parmelee is shifted to first base. After dishing out $4 million to him, there is little doubt in my mind that they attempt to get him into the lineup more than two times a week to allow Mauer to rest. For the more fly-ball oriented pitchers on this staff, this alignment should raise their anxiety levels just a bit. With Revere and Span, the pitchers had some reassurance that more fly balls would find leather. Now, the gaps are going to get a little bigger. The hope, of course, is that with this alignment, the Twins should have a more potent offense that would off-set the defensive liability.

Well, there you go...

So...if no one is watching Nishioka does pretty good...

I do not. The point of this post was to address the issue that was raised by fans/commenters/media members who were concerned over Morneau's spring numbers and performance. What I said was (1) it's a small sample size in the spring and (2) those that have been watching him this spring have been noting he had been hitting the ball better the past few games. Without having seen his performance first-hand, I did add that the reports were very similar to what was said in the final two weeks of spring training last year -- which were saying similar things about "hitting the ball hard" and needing to regain his timing. Hopefully, these past two days are an indication of things to come.