Brandon Warne

This is an excerpt of an article that appears in full on Zone Coverage. Please click here to read the full story, and please consider subscribing to the site here. Tommy John celebrated his 75th birthday on Tuesday, but the surgery that bears his name is well over 40 years old. In fact, enter a room of pitchers and you’ll find that the sampling of those who’ve had Tommy John surgery is akin to going to a fraternity and trying to find a dude who has ever had a hangover. Orthopedic surgeon Frank Jobe performed the first procedure — also known as ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction — on the Los Angeles Dodgers lefty back in 1974. Ever since, it has not only become more ubiquitous, but also more proven in terms of players returning their previous form after extensive rehab. With a room full of pitchers who’ve had the procedure and a seemingly different story of recovery from each one, I thought why not give each pitcher a chance to explain what their triumphs and tribulations were like as they battled to come back from the surgery. Every pitcher is asked the same questions; every pitcher will almost certainly give different answers. These are the Tommy John Files: Player – Left-handed reliever Zach Duke The surgery — when/where/who performed it? “Dr. James Andrews performed the surgery down in Pensacola, Fla.“ The injury — when/where did it happen? “So for me, I was diagnosed with a partial (UCL) tear back in 2007. I put in some maintenance exercises and things which held everything in place for a while. Finally, throughout the course of the 2016 season, the ligament completely tore. What happened for me, when I knew I had to have surgery, was that I threw a pitch and felt a different pain. What ended up happening was that the flexor tendon had popped off the bone. So my hand kind of seized up on the mound, and I knew there was something bad going on. So, the MRI a few days later obviously said the ligament was completely gone now. There was some stuff in there before, but it’s completely done and now the flexor tendon needs to be repaired quickly.” Was the pain instantaneous, or over time? “It was — because of the flexor tendon coming off — I mean I couldn’t turn a doorknob or squeeze a ketchup bottle without just….pain. When it was just the ligament, there were flare-ups here and there. Some stiffness would creep in. I’d have to manage the pain there. It was just finding a way through managing the range of motion and the pain tolerance. It was kind of always there, though.” Rehab Were there peaks and valleys? What were they like? “So the approach I kind of took was that I wanted there to be a pretty steady feeling of soreness. I didn’t want it to get too intense to where I had to back off, and maybe stop, or take a break and push the timeline back a bit. I tried to keep it at a constant feel of building. It’s a testament to the program that the Cardinals staff had for me, and Dr. Andrews was in constant contact with us as well. I got back to the big-league mound in nine-and-a-half months, which I guess was the fastest in the last decade or whatever. But for me, I just tried to keep that steady feel.”

Good luck finding one.

This is an excerpt from a piece that originates at Zone Coverage here. Please click through to read the rest, and consider subscribing to the site. It’s May 17, 1998. It’s 8:30 a.m. It’s a Sunday. There is nothing remotely perfect about David Wells’ state of mind as he’s on the receiving end of a Senton Splash — as popularized by the Hardy Boyz of WWE fame from that era — from his son Brandon. Having poured himself into bed a mere 210 minutes earlier, Wells’ mind couldn’t be further from where it needs to be in a matter of hours — a date with the Minnesota Twins just after 1:30 in the afternoon. The Yankees are in the midst of a wonderful start in what ends up being a legendary season, though Wells isn’t quite yet pulling his weight. Last time out, Wells mowed down a forgettable Royals lineup — though it did feature future Yankees stalwart Johnny Damon — on the way to his fourth win of the season. But the time out before that, Wells was throttled by the Texas Rangers, giving up seven earned runs while recording only eight outs in a game the Yankees won, 15-13. That early May game pushed his season ERA to 5.77, and while Wells would get his revenge that October as the Yankees eliminated the Rangers in the division series in three straight games — thanks in large part to Boomer throwing eight shutout innings with 11 strikeouts before handing the ball to Mariano Rivera — he had to turn his attention to a Twins team that was closer to contraction than contention in 1998. So Wells was headed into Sunday’s matchup with the Twins with a 5.23 ERA and one hell of a f*cking headache. If anything big was brewing, it wasn’t taking place between Boomer’s ears. — Ask anyone about something that happened 20 years ago, and you’re bound to get hazy answers. Hell, it’s hard to remember 20 days ago for most folks. But when reminded of a particularly noteworthy event, the details around it come into focus. There is one indisputable fact from this particular Sunday — no Twins reached base against Wells. A lot of other details start to file into place when reminded of that fact. But the weird thing is that most people remember the weather from that day. It’s really strange, too, because it really isn’t all that notable. The official record for the game records the temperature as 59 degrees, overcast and breezy.

This is an excerpt from a story that originated at Zone Coverage. Please read it in its entirety here, and consider subscribing to support the site. The Miguel Sano injury situation trudged through Day 18 on Tuesday without much of an update as the Minnesota Twins prepared to open a quick two-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals. “(It was) more of the same today,” manager Paul Molitor said. “(He) ran the bases. Still, from my vantage point, we’re not seeing max effort, which we’re going to need to see. He’s swinging the bat fine. It’s just going to making sure he can do everything he needs to on a baseball field and play a position defensively.” That pretty much falls in line with Molitor’s comments on Monday, where he said Sano was not “very close” to returning. But whether that’s 7-to-10 days — or perhaps longer — the Twins have stomached a lack of offense without Sano for too long. That’s not an indictment on Eduardo Escobar, the team’s erstwhile third baseman while Sano has been down. Coming into Tuesday’s game, Escobar is hitting a very Sano-like .274/.329/.548 with seven homers in 34 games. That’s a 34-homer pace for 162 games — six more than Sano’s career-high of 28, set last season. The issue has come at shortstop, as Escobar has slid over and left the spot open for Ehire Adrianza. Adrianza did a fine job as a utility player in 2017, but is clearly stretched as a regular. He’s hitting just .229/.295/.286 through 78 plate appearances this season, a little less than half the number he took last year (186) when he hit .265/.324/.383 and filled in capably all over the diamond defensively. That’s not to say that Adrianza doesn’t have a spot on the 25-man roster of a winning club. He provided the Twins with a win of value — per Fangraphs’ WAR metric — last season. But if the idea was that Adrianza was only going to fill in briefly while Sano recuperated, it’s quickly becoming clear that’s no longer the case. Sano’s roster spot was filled by 33-year-old journeyman Gregorio Petit, who prior to 2018 had cups of espresso with the A’s (2008-09), Astros (2014), Yankees (2015) and Angels (2016), but had only once played more than 40 games in any big league season. Even by virtue of a strong six-game stretch with the Twins where he’s hitting .429, he’s still just a career .255/.297/.355 hitter. As a temporary move, adding him to the 40-man roster — and putting Ervin Santana on the 60-day DL as a corresponding transaction — was defensible. But now it seems like it’s time to take a broader look at the road ahead. It’s time to promote infield prospect Nick Gordon.

This is an excerpt from a piece on Zone Coverage which originates here. Please click through to read it in full, and consider subscribing to the site to support our work. The Minnesota Twins returned home from a successful road trip for a strange one-off game against the Seattle Mariners. The game, which was a make-up for one that was snowed out on April 8, was delayed an hour and 42 minutes before it got underway. From that point on, it was an unlikely pitcher’s duel between Twins righty Jake Odorizzi and Mariners lefty Wade LeBlanc. Neither side blinked until the Mariners opened the eighth inning with a double, and then a bunt was mishandled by Logan Morrison which led to the only run of the night scoring. This left reliever Trevor Hildenberger with a hard-luck loss, and the Twins off to a tough start to the homestand with National League Central-leading St. Louis coming to town next. Here’s what we saw from our vantage point: Odorizzi’s night was “Double, Double and Toil” but no trouble Odorizzi was very, very good on the night, but did allow leadoff doubles in the third, fifth and sixth innings. Each time, however, he was able to wriggle out of trouble. “Jake did a nice job,” manager Paul Molitor said. “He pitched around a couple leadoff doubles and kept putting zeroes up there. Even after taking a shot (line drive off the bat of Kyle Seager), he was able to make pitches on that last hitter to keep it tied at the time.” In the third inning, Ben Gamel roped a double off the top of the wall in deep right-center. Gordon Beckham — freshly added to the roster with the injury to Robinson Cano — struck out swinging, Dee Gordon grounded to short and Jean Segura grounded to Logan Morrison, who made a nifty play at first for the out. In the fifth, Ryon Healy drilled a double to left. Mike Zunino followed by striking out, then Gamel walked, Beckham struck out swinging and Gordon popped to Ehire Adrianza, who made a fine running play to preserve the scoreless tie. In the sixth, Segura led off with a double to deep right. Mitch Haniger flew out to left, Nelson Cruz was grazed by a pitch and Kyle Seager roped a liner off Odorizzi’s backside which deflected to Adrianza at short. Adrianza had trouble getting a handle on the ball at first, but recorded to beat Cruz to the bag — just barely — for the second out. After some warm-up tosses to make sure he was OK, Odorizzi rebounded to strike Healy out swinging. All told, three of the four hits against Odorizzi went for extra bases, but each time he settled in and more often than not, used strikeouts to get outs when he needed them. Odorizzi had a stellar 15 swinging strikes on 97 pitches. According to Brooks Baseball, seven of them came on the four-seam fastball (11.7 percent), four came on the slider (22.2 percent), three came on the split (18.8 percent) and one came on the curve (18.8 percent). All of those are terrific marks on the respective pitches.

This is an excerpt from a piece on Zone Coverage which originates here. Please click through to read it in full, and consider subscribing to the site to support our work. Lance Lynn likes his fastball. He likes it a lot. Lynn is in the midst of his seventh MLB season, and he’s never thrown it less than 70.4 percent of the time. In fact, in his final two years with the St. Louis Cardinals — a team he’s slated to face at Target Field on Wednesday afternoon — that usage rocketed over 80 percent. Those two years were 2015 and 2017, and you can be forgiven if you wonder where 2016 went. But like most pitchers of this current era predicated on velocity and strikeouts, Lynn missed that year with Tommy John surgery. Yes, even a pitcher who throws mostly fastballs can fall prey to the surgery that is now as foolproof as ever, a procedure was considered an MLB widowmaker just a little over 40 years ago. Some pitchers use that time off to reflect. Some use it to plan how they’ll alter their repertoire to avoid a recurrence of the issue. Not Lynn. “Nah,” Lynn said about if he ever thought about changing things up post-TJ. “I mean, I usually just go with what I have that day. I’ve never really thought about changing or trying to do something different.” He answered the question almost before it was finished, and with the same conviction he answered every previous and subsequent question. Lynn can be hard to read. It didn’t come up, but he’s probably good at poker. For a newcomer, it’s hard to tell if he’s amused or annoyed by the line of questions. That’s part of the charm of Lynn, who turned 31 while the Twins were on the road. At any given time, his smile might be one of warmth or one of incredulity. But you really can’t be sure which. While people lamented the awful weather of the early season, Lynn merely shrugged it off prior to Monday’s makeup game against the Seattle Mariners. He was actually slated to start that game — April 8, a Sunday — before a mix of snow and slush began what was an early-season flurry of days off and on with little degree of consistency between the two. “No,” Lynn said when asked if he was worried he was over his head weather-wise in early April. “It’s Minnesota. You know it’s supposed to be cold. It was probably the worst it’s ever been, I think they were saying, at that time of year. But you weren’t expecting 80 and sunshine in April. If you were, you’ve got problems.”

It's May 2. Take a chill pill, dude.

It can take a little while for fans to figure out what a new coach is all about on their favorite team. For instance, it took a while into last season for Twins to hear about James Rowson’s hitting theories, both with Byron Buxton’s struggles and rebound as well as Eddie Rosario’s development as a hitter. Now imagine how long it takes for a coach to learn about all their pupils. That’s even more true of new Twins pitching coach Garvin Alston, whose team is coming off using 36 pitchers last season -- if you count Chris Gimenez, anyhow -- and is already headed toward using its 19th -- if you count Ryan LaMarre, anyhow -- of the year with John Curtiss being added to the roster on Monday. Not only did Alston have to prepare for the expected Opening Day roster -- which even still saw additions all offseason and into spring training with Jake Odorizzi and Lance Lynn -- but he also had non-roster invitees and other key players in the minor leagues to prepare for. Alston, who got a cup of coffee in the big leagues with the Colorado Rockies in 1996 and spent eight years in pro ball altogether, figured he better get to work quickly. “You’re absolutely correct,” Alston said of the process being a little daunting at first when the Twins brought him on last November. “Once I got the job, and I got all the information and the new computer came in, I was able to get into our system here. I started going about an hour, or an hour-and-a-half per day of picking a person and watching film on them. I did that with everyone on the roster and some of our non-roster invitees who came in.” Now that’s just the prep during the winter. Once spring starts, he can put his eyeballs to work in real-time, watching guys go through their workouts and in-game action once Grapefruit League games begin. “Through spring training, you kind of watch and see the same things you saw on film, and you kind of get an idea from there what they can and cannot do well,” Alston said. “You kind of let them go from there. It’s been more about learning the person and the personality right now. That’s been my biggest challenge. So we go to dinner to dinner together and talk quite a bit in the clubhouse.” Everyone has beliefs about pitching foundationally, and obviously, Alston is no exception. Pitching coaches range from the nameless and faceless to the legends like Dave Duncan, Leo Mazzone, Mel Stottlemyre, Rick Peterson, Don Cooper and Ray Searage to name some of the more well-known recent guys. This is an excerpt from a full-length story appearing at Zone Coverage here. Please click through to support the content.

This is an excerpt of a story that originates on Zone Coverage here. Please click through to read it in full. Mother Nature has a cruel and ironic sense of humor. While the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox had three-quarters of a four-game set turned into a winter wonderland last weekend, it’s going to be a balmy 67 degrees on Monday — just in time for the Twins to open a four-game series with the New York Yankees. In the Bronx, as luck would have it. Postponements mean make-up games, and make-up games mean one of two things — shoehorning the game into an otherwise tight schedule or doubleheaders. The Seattle Mariners postponement from earlier in the week was pushed out to a mutual day off in May, and fortunately means the Twins will get just two days off in the span of eight days instead of three. That’s not too harrowing. The other three games with the White Sox have been scattered throughout the summer, with one coming on June 5, another on Aug. 20 and the final on Sept. 28. The first will be a doubleheader that turns a three-game set into four. The second turns a quick two-game series into a three-game, home-and-home set with Monday at Target Field and Tuesday-Wednesday on the south side of Chicago. The September one is a split doubleheader, though that comes with expanded rosters, so it’s perhaps a bit less worrisome. It also comes with just two more games left in the season; with any luck, the Twins will have their fate decided by then. The White Sox surely will. On the positive side, the Twins have — to this point, anyway — managed to retain their slate of off-days in June. They don’t play a single Monday in the entire month, which for rest purposes is obviously a good thing. But regardless of what happens in the future on the weather front, the Twins are set up well for this kind of thing. Why? Because basically the entire starting rotation at Rochester is on the 40-man roster, and even parts of it trickle down to Chattanooga. Paul Molitor announced on Friday that Phil Hughes will make the team’s first start from a fifth starter on Sunday in Tampa, thus ending a stretch of snow-related serendipity that allowed the Twins to skate by with a long bullpen and just four starters for even longer than originally expected. In addition to Hughes, the Twins have Trevor May and, of course, Ervin Santana on the disabled list with both primed to make contributions at various points this season. You can throw Michael Pineda into that mix if you desire, as well. But at Rochester alone, the Twins have Aaron Slegers, Dietrich Enns and Fernando Romero who are all on the 40-man roster and available at a moment’s notice. Felix Jorge is in that mix as well, though he’s currently on the disabled list on the Chattanooga roster. It’s unclear where and when he’ll make his season debut, but he pitched not only with the Red Wings but also the Twins last year, so he too is capable of making the jump as a 26th man or an extra arm if the team needs one for a start.

This is an except of a post that originated at Zone Coverage; please read the entire thing here. The 2016 season opened with a walk-off loss for the Minnesota Twins in Baltimore. Then again, it also began with Miguel Sano playing right field, so the parallels probably stop there. But the Twins opened the 2018 season in stunningly similar fashion to two years ago, when the wheels fell all the way off on the path to a 103-loss season, the No. 1 overall pick and the bouncing bundle of prospect joy that is Royce Lewis. This team is probably just a bit more well-prepared to stomach such a loss, even without Ervin Santana for probably the next six weeks. Santana started that fateful game against the Orioles in early April 2016, but both he and Chris Tillman were bounced early after a nearly two-hour rain delay. Another delay two innings later meant the teams spent almost six hours at the ballpark with under three hours of game time to show for it. It’s hard to come up with a better metaphor for the 2016 season, but either way, we’ll save that for a rainy day. The weather was just fine as the Twins again fell 3-2 on Opening Day to the Orioles, this time off the bat of Adam Jones instead of Matt Wieters. Jones attacked the first pitch he, or any hitter for that matter, saw from Fernando Rodney in the bottom of the 11th, ambushing a 92 mph two-seam fastball and driving it deep into a sea of orange. For the first six innings of the game, the attention was on the starters. Dylan Bundy kept the Twins in check as he tossed seven shutout frames, while Jake Odorizzi did the same through six before handing things off to Zach Duke. That’s where things got dicey. Trey Mancini struck out swinging, but Jason Castro was unable to corral the third strike. Mancini reached first, then took second on another wild pitch before Duke eventually fanned Tim Beckham. Former Twin Danny Valencia pinch-hit for designated hitter Pedro Alvarez, and was intentionally walked to set up a possible double play off the bat of Craig Gentry. Earlier in the game, Gentry had robbed Twins left fielder Eddie Rosario of a home run with a terrific leaping catch at the fence in right-center. Gentry struck out swinging, but with two outs, No. 9 hitter Caleb Joseph stroked a first-pitch triple into the right-center gap, bringing home both Mancini and Valencia to give the O’s a 2-0 lead. Duke recovered to strike Chris Davis out looking for the rarely-seen fourth strikeout of the inning, something he told reporters afterward he’d only ever done before in high school. According to Baseball Almanac, that’s the fourth time in Twins history that a pitcher has fanned four batters in an inning, though all have happened in the last decade. Scott Baker (June 15, 2008), Francisco Liriano (June 5, 2012) and Tyler Duffey (May 8, 2016) were the first three. Both Twins runs came in the ninth off interim closer Brad Brach, who is filling in while Zach Britton recovers from a ruptured Achilles. Sano struck out swinging, and Rosario followed with a grounder to first that Davis couldn’t handle — which was somehow ruled a single. Rosario took second on a wild pitch, and Logan Morrison walked with Ryan LaMarre coming in to run for him. After Eduardo Escobar struck out on a full count pitch down in the zone, Max Kepler set the standard for best plate appearance of the year early, as he fought off multiple tough pitches before taking an 11-pitch walk to load the bases. Molitor made the second — or third, depending on your mileage — decision of the day that left some fans scratching their heads as he had Robbie Grossman pinch-hit for Byron Buxton, but it paid off as Robbie’s flare into left-center landed just beyond the glove of Orioles shortstop Manny Machado to tie the game. However, that was all the Twins offense was able to put together, with Jones sending the hometown fans happy after a couple innings of bonus baseball.

Go get Trayce Thompson.

Impatience is a natural tendency. That’s especially true for fans of a team that, despite making the postseason last year, had obvious flaws. So in a sense, it was understandable when Minnesota Twins fans were annoyed that the team came home from the winter meetings just before Christmas with a 40-year-old closer and a broken down starter who gives up too many homers. Little did they know what would lie ahead for the winter. In fact, it was another month before the Twins did anything substantive. For Twins fans though, it was worth the wait. From that point on, the Twins have made the following moves: Jan. 13 – Signed Addison Reed (two years, $16.75 million) Feb. 16 – Signed Anibal Sanchez (one year, $2.5 million*) Feb. 17 – Traded for Jake Odorizzi Feb. 25 – Signed Logan Morrison (one year, $5.5 million) March 10 – Signed Lance Lynn (one year, $12 million) *since released with a payment of under $500k In the span of just under two months, the regime of Derek Falvey and Thad Levine added four significant players as well as a taken a flyer on a has-been. That’s not meant to be a slight on Sanchez, either; it’s certainly better to be a has-been rather than a never-was. Those types have been all too familiar on the roster in recent seasons. It’s hard to know how early the Twins brass saw that this would be a slow-developing market, but they stayed away from two key tenets that we see a lot of fans cling to: Address your biggest weaknesses first Address your weaknesses quickly By waiting out the early wave of free agency, the Twins managed to beef up their roster impressively while remaining on a strict budget. That’s not to say that these players couldn’t have provided value at much higher contract prices, but when given the choice between paying sticker price or waiting for a markdown, executives — and especially owners — are going to pick the latter. As a brief aside, we don’t want this to sound like we support the system depression of contract values in an effort to maximize profits for ownership. We aren’t here to bang the drum for owners — directly or indirectly — but rather are hoping this is a market correction that exchanges long deals that frequently become albatrosses for perhaps shorter deals with higher average annual values. For instance, if Bryce Harper signed next offseason for five years and $200 million ($40m per, but only through his age-30 season), as opposed to 15 years and say…..$450 million ($30m per, but through his age-40 season). That could theoretically be the happy medium between the bottom falling completely out of the market — Let’s be honest, Neil Walker for $5 million and year? That’s ridiculous — and the contracts that feature extremely player-friendly opt-outs like those in the deals of Jason Heyward (not great!) and Giancarlo Stanton (probably fine, but the Yankees get all the downside risk). With that said, the Twins are slated to — assuming they’re finished shopping — head into the regular season with a payroll of $126.576 million according to Cot’s Contracts on Baseball Prospectus. That’s a new club record. Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read the rest of the story.

When I was a young boy, my mom used to get me the fantasy baseball magazines that came out from Athlon Sports and publications of that kind, and I’d devour them cover to cover. For a 10- or 11-year-old, I was pretty baseball obsessed. That actually started around the time I was seven and at my grandma’s house, and we bonded over nightly Twins games as I grew to love the sport more and more over time. In the magazines I previously referenced, they would publish a chart that showed how many games players saw action in and at what positions. In fact, I happened to find a 2003 copy of Athlon Sports annual, and it was just as I remembered. This is how the 2002 Twins divvied up playing time across the diamond: Those charts fascinated me for a long time, as I’d scan them to see if any player had seen action at a position I just couldn’t imagine. Now as an adult, I have access to Baseball Reference, and with a few easy clicks I can find players who’ve seen action at positions some of us either A. don’t remember or B. couldn’t have envisioned in our wildest dreams. Such as: Kent Hrbek – Third Base When? Aug. 1, 1990 against the California Angels at the Metrodome This one was really strange. Manager Tom Kelly had an otherwise mostly healthy Gary Gaetti on the bench — trainer Dick Martin said he was perhaps a bit stiff, but otherwise good to go — yet opted to move Hrbek to third base in the ninth inning of what was then an 8-5 game. The Twins ultimately lost 11-5. Angels leadoff hitter Luis Polonia led off the inning with an ugly bunt single to third — testing Hrbek right away on the first pitch — and came around to score when Al Newman, who had been playing third base to start the game, couldn’t handle a grounder off the bat of Devon White at short. All told, Hrbek fielded two chances — a grounder off the bat of Bill Schroeder where he got the short out at second base — and then what appears to have been a deflection to short. Baseball Reference has the play scored 3B-SS-1B (SS-3B hole) groundout, which seems to suggest Hrbek deflected it to Newman, who then threw it to Randy Bush at first to retire Kent Anderson. Kelly said after the game that he probably should have pinch hit Gaetti for Newman in the eighth. Instead, Newman grounded into a double play to end a rally — in what was then a three-run game, remember — as Angels closer Bryan Harvey came in to neutralize the threat. “But that’s a Catch-22 situation,” Kelly said of bringing in Gaetti in the eighth. “It’s easy to say that now.” That feels like a wholly unsatisfying reason not to bring in Gaetti, and it was openly questioned by a few players in the clubhouse after the game, according to Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Jeff Lenihan. One player who joked about being bitter that Hrbek getting to play third was star teammate Kirby Puckett. “I’ve always wanted to play there too,” Puckett told Lenihan after the game. “I guess this means (Kelly) likes Herbie more than me. I’m hurt…That bunt (by Polonia) was terrible, but I would have been playing in if he would have put me there. I want my turn.” He’d get his turn, in due time. Interestingly enough, 1990 was Gaetti’s final season with the Twins, and after the season, he signed with who else? The California Angels. This is just a small excerpt of a story that appears in full here! Please click through to read it.

Exactly. This is burying your head in the sand -- which serves no purpose.

If you don't want to know the answer to the question, don't ask it. If you didn't think this was the answer to the question you didn't want answered, chances are you were only kidding yourself.

Mauer career earnings - $195 million Dozier career earnings - $12 million Even after this year ($9 million), only then will Dozier surpass what Mauer made in just the last year ($24 million to $23 million).

It's not. He literally answered the question he was asked. That's it.

I'd offer him 3/$60m

I think Nunez is a better bargain. Can theoretically play everywhere with an above-average bat and he got just $4 mill per?

They should have signed Eduardo Nunez.

With the arrival of spring comes a lot of things people have been working on all winter long. Teams have worked on building rosters, the earth has worked on getting warmer and writers have worked on prospect lists to unveil to the masses. Prospect coverage has grown immensely in the last decade-plus — perhaps in lockstep with the Moneyball era — as fans have gone from shrugging at the idea of a minor leaguer coming up to the big leagues or being in a trade to the point where it’s almost become paralysis by analysis. Now, instead of “go trade for Chris Archer!” as a uniform idea if it were 20 years ago, we’re more along the lines of “yeah, get Archer, but don’t give up Prospects A, B or C!” So while the stagnancy rate of prospects hasn’t really changed — after all, rosters are 25 deep and have been for…..a really long time? — the hugging of them has grown to uncomfortable levels. Still, it makes for fun discussion both when the snow is flying and in lieu of reading tweets of play-by-play from Grapefruit League games where someone’s No. 75 just struck out someone else’s No. 83. So here’s what prospect lists are saying about Twins minor leaguers this year (with an excerpt about the player): Shortstop Royce Lewis (Twins No. 1 prospect on MLB.com) Baseball Prospectus – No. 27 – “…exciting tools across the board, and his broad-shouldered, high-waisted frame is straight from the Projectability Factory.” Fangraphs – No. 38 – “…scouts still largely think (his) tools play best in center field long-term…” Baseball America – No. 24 – “…had no problem making the necessary adjustments for a smooth transition to pro ball…” ESPN (Keith Law) – No. 25 – “…if he stays at shortstop, he has superstar upside with his speed and on-base skills…” MLB Pipeline – No. 20 – “…watching his full-season encore should be a treat.” Fake Teams – No. 22 – “…bring plus speed, an advanced approach and developing power…” The Dynasty Guru – No. 26 – N/A Razzball – No. 21 – “…brings five tools to the table at a premium position.” KATOH – No. 23 – projected for 7.6 career fWAR CBS Sports – No. 21 – “…uncommon plate discipline for a teenager.” The rest of this post can be found on Zone Coverage here! Please click through to support the content.

No, I'm not. I'm deferring to the people in charge of the Twins -- who clearly have an issue with it.

Name another 280 lb, long-term third baseman. He might be the unicorn, but I'm not gambling hundreds of million dollars in future earnings to find out.

Twitter was ablaze with the news that the Minnesota Twins had signed former Marlins and Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez to a one-year deal. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports was the first to report a done deal, and also reported that it was a big-league deal worth $2.5 million over one year with the possibility of doubling that total via starts-based incentives. MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger passes on that the deal is not guaranteed, though it does mean Sanchez will get a 40-man spot — one step up from a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training. Sanchez came over to the Tigers in the second-biggest deal between them and the Marlins — the other involved Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle Willis, Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller — and after pitching well down the stretch in 2012 earned an $80 million deal over five years. The righty, who turns 34 later this month, turned in two strong seasons to start the contract. He finished fourth in AL Cy Young balloting in 2013 with a 2.57 ERA in 182 innings in 2013, and the next year posted a 3.43 ERA in 126 innings as he was limited to just 22 appearances (21 starts) and 126 innings. The last three years have been much more unsightly, and may serve more as a cautionary tale than anything. It’d have been hard to find a Twins fan not in favor of signing Sanchez five years ago when he got the big deal from the Tigers. And right now, it’s hard to dodge a burning torch or a pitchfork among Twins fans wondering why this is the move instead of something more substantive. But maybe signing Lance Lynn or Alex Cobb to a four- or five-year deal isn’t the answer. And maybe Sanchez’s deal with the Tigers shows why. But the Twins’ deal with Sanchez doesn’t really feel like the proper counterbalance to that argument, you know? Over the last three years, Sanchez has made 88 appearances (68 starts), and posted a 5.67 ERA. FIP is a bit more generous (5.01), but it hasn’t looked good. That’s over 400 innings, too — it’s not like we’re being hypnotized by a small sample size or even one really bad year ruining the other two. He’s gotten progressively worse by ERA: 4.99, 5.87 and 6.41. Looking for hope in Sanchez’s numbers begin and ends with his strikeout and walk rates, as he’s still fanned 8.2 batters per nine over this tough stretch — above his career rate of 8.0 — while walking just 2.8. But he’s allowed a WHIP of 1.43 — perilously high, and spells out his contact issues — and he’s allowed an MLB-worst 1.8 home runs per nine over that time frame. Please click through to Zone Coverage to read the full story here.

Sitting 95-97? No chance.