Parker Hageman

Perkins is warming up in the pen.

John Shipley at the Pioneer Press spoke with Twins GM Terry Ryan today, addressing Justin Morneau's regular designated hitter playing time as of late. Part of the motivation behind having Morneau at DH may have to do with Chris Parmelee's torrid spring performance. Said Ryan of Morneau and Parmelee: Parmelee's been very impressive this spring, hitting .324/.395/.588 with a double, a triple and two home runs (one against the Phillies' Roy Halladay) and perhaps forcing the Twins to carry him on the roster at the season's onset. If Parmelee is brought north, this certainly complicates the lineup. With Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit, Josh Willingham and now potentially Parmelee, the Twins have a log jam of first basemen/DHs/corner outfielders that Ron Gardenhire will have to get creative in efforts to get all of their bats in the lineup.

A double yesterday and his first spring home run since 2010 today -- apparently the reports of him being "close" and hitting the ball hard are legit. Good signs.

I'm very interested in Herrmann's progress at Triple-A. Will be one player to keep an eye on throughout the season.

I can't think of another player currently who has made more modifications in their stance than Delmon. That said, he incorporated the higher hand set in June of last year while with the Twins so that's not new. After that change, he went on to show much more pop than the season's first-half without the high hand set. There's definitely a difference in his stance. Last year, he showed a much longer spread and was more squat. The lower-half of his stance resembles his 2008 set somewhat where is legs were closer together. To me, the biggest impact is his leg lift. Last year it was much more of a front foot flick than it is now. It is more aggressive and he has a very strong plant resulting a powerful hip display. I can see him having a big season in the power department. You can compare his swing in 2011 versus his new 2012 one in these videos.

Agree, for the most part but the real focus of Morneau's spring is the lack of extra base hits -- the power isn't there. It could be timing, as he says, which may dissipate as he accrues more ABs or it could be something effecting him like his wrist, shoulder, concussion, etc which, to me, is more of a concern. If he is hitting the ball as sharply as the reports say, it's definitely a positive and trumps his ability to accumulate spring hits. At the same time, the reports from a year ago were strikingly similar -- his timing was close, he was having some loud outs, etc.

No video of his spring ABs are available in order to properly dissect his swing. It will something that I will be looking at more closely at the beginning of the regular season.

TwinsBaseball.com's stat section has spring training numbers. They are hardly advanced.

Well, he did knock up a Hooters girl...but the HoF is littered with far more deviants than that.

Not as much as MTV's Rock N Jock's 25-point shot has.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?350-Is-it-time-to-worry-about-Morneau-yet

[ATTACH=CONFIG]418[/ATTACH]Following Monday’s 0-for-2 performance, lowering his spring batting average to .100, Justin Morneau addressed his struggles: "It's gotten better. It's not where I want it to be yet. The swing's getting better. The swing feels a lot better than it did when I first got down here. It's a process, it's moving along. I just have to keep telling myself that it's slow, and just because it's not here now doesn't mean it's not going to be here a week from now." Sound familiar? A year ago, Morneau was coming off a serious concussion injury and slowly easing back into the game in mid-March. For the majority of the time in Florida in 2011, he struggled. He failed to leave the yard in his 11 games and batted .152 but managed to knock a trifecta of doubles. Reflecting on his performance, told the Star Tribune’s LaVelle E Neal that his “timing is starting to come .” Despite his claim to the contrary, in the regular season Morneau’s timing never came. As of this past Monday, his results have continued to plummet (down to .091 after yesterday’s 0-for-3 game), sending a ripple of concern through the Minnesota fan base that the timing may never come. For those looking for some reassurance, you can turn to the fact that it is hard to put too much stock into the small sample size that is spring training. Additionally, Morneau has never been a fast starter when it comes to spring training (dating back to 2006 and MLB.com’s statistical database). Perhaps the Canadians have a tough time adjusting to the Gulf Coast heat. With the exception of his 2009 spring in which he hit three home runs and slugged over .700, he has been somewhat of a disappointment each March. Nevertheless, he has still managed to come out and perform admireably once the calender flips to April. Take is 2010 spring for instance. That year he posted a batting average of .160 (albeit tagging three home runs). Even though he had what could be considered a slow start, he was blazing through the league, hitting .345/.437/.618 with 18 home runs prior to his run-in with John MacDonald’s knee. Morneau and the media on-lookers in Fort Myers are trying to sell hope. “It’s close” is the clear message. Back on March 16th Neal said in his blog that Morneau “swung the bat with murderous intentions tonight, which could be a sign that his timing is coming around to the point where he's comfortable with letting it fly.” Morneau told reporters after Monday’s game that “I think I've just kind of let it fly and hit some balls hard - hit some balls hard at people, hit some balls hard foul. I guess that's a pretty good sign. Especially yesterday, I pulled the ball foul. I hadn't done that in a long time." Likewise, following yesterday’s contest, 1500ESPN.com’s Phil Mackey described Morneau’s outs as “scalded” and hit “hard.” These are positive signs, are they not? After all, hard hit balls eventually turn into hits. Then again, while that sounds comforting, this has been a historically bad spring output for the first baseman. He has never not hit an extra base hit in spring training. He has never had a sub-.100 batting average. What’s more, he has never had to recover from a concussion, wrist surgery and pain in his neck, shoulder, knees and toes (knees and toes). If he was not be able to shake the concussion alone last year to regain his timing, what is to lead us to believe he will overcome all four ailments to rebound in 2012?

Thanks for sharing Lindsay! I hope you check back in with more details!

Welp. Might have to explore this topic for the TwinsCentric Strib post tomorrow...

Pavano is getting cuffed around pretty good. Your Opening Day starter, ladies and gentlemen!

According to Baseball America's rankings, the Twins come in at number 20 on their list of best farm systems. Texas's farm system paced the field but the Royals (2) were not far behind. Kansas City was the only AL Central team to finish ahead of the Twins, so in terms of direct competition, Minnesota might be positioned well for the future. Detroit's (23) system ranked slightly lower but pulling up the rear of the entire list are the division rival Indians (29) and White Sox (30). Your thoughts?

According to the Pioneer Press, Clark Calvin Griffith, 70, son of former Twins owner Calvin Griffith and now a professor at William Mitchell Law in St. Paul, is accused of "exposing himself" to a 24-year-old female student at a bar. Here are some details of what allegedly went down on January 24: Beyond the event that transpired on Victoria Street, likely near the bar Billy's On Grand, additional information emerged from the complaint in which Griffith was not yet familiar with: The Star Tribune's report has some further details:

That would be a pretty potent lineup. You should compare what the cost would be to have kept that group intact.

Also depends on the situation/score. Early in the game, go for the out.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?343-Gardenhire-Dozier-will-start-in-Rochester

[ATTACH=CONFIG]405[/ATTACH]After sending Tsuyoshi Nishioka to Rochester, many fans began to think that Brian Dozier may have done enough this spring to entice the powers that be to include him on the major league roster. On Tuesday, manager Ron Gardenhire squelched that notion. According to the Star Tribune’s Joe Christensen’s tweet which paraphrased Gardenhire’s comments on the situation, the Twins will not be bringing Dozier northward but rather sending him to Rochester to start the season. The Twins’ manager added that the team would not hesitate to summon Dozier if anything should happen to either Jamey Carroll or Alexi Casilla. This would allow for Dozier to be a starter rather than a utility player for the parent club. Dozier, 24, made offensive progress in 2011 after his promotion to Double-A New Britain. There, he worked with hitting coach Tom Brunansky to develop more power. Said Dozier of the former Twins’ instructions: "When I got to Double-A, my swing kind of changed,'' Dozier said. "I started to develop into my swing. I worked with Tom Brunansky and it really took off for me. I developed more power and was driving balls more than I was used to.'' Unfortunately, no video exists of Dozier’s post-Double A swing so we cannot provide a full breakdown of his mechanics. What we can see statistically is that whatever changes that were made, it resulted in much improved power numbers although at the small expense of his on-base percentage and batting average. While in High-A Fort Myers, Dozier hit a solid .322/.417/.472. Once he was moved to New Britain, he hit a very good .318/.376/.502. While the walk rate dropped (from 12.4% to 8.0%) and the strike out rate grew (from 9.2% to 13.1%) his power output increased substantially (his isolated power swelled from .150 to .184). This might be something that you would expect from working under Brunansky’s tutelage as Bruno himself had a lot of all-or-nothing type swing in him (leading to a low-batting average/on-base percentage and high-slugging combination over his career). Of course, that is not to say that Dozier is following in Brunansky’s footprints, after all, the change in competition level may have as much to do with the shift in his peripheral numbers as anything. However, the change in the way the ball was coming off his bat may be the biggest outcome of the swing modification. Pre-New Britain, Dozier was knocking the ball into the ground closer to the 50% mark over his career. For a speedy middle infielder, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Since his time in New Britain, that ground ball rate has dropped to below-40%, meaning he is elevating the ball far more often than usual and, hence, the sudden increase in home runs (seven in 351 plate appearances) and extra base hits. So whatever adjustments were made, so far, it has paid off. With Brunansky moved to Rochester to handle the team’s most ready minor league prospects, sending Dozier back to work with the man who helped improve his swing and continue to put the final touches on it is not the worst outcome.