Cody Christie

With Justin Morneau's exit from the club in the last week, the Twins are searching for someone to take over his leadership role in the clubhouse. This seems to be a recurring theme for the Twins in recent years as the club shifts away from veteran leadership to a more youthful roster. Download attachment: Perkins_Mauer_600-321.jpg A couple years ago Michael Cuddyer and Joe Nathan were considered among the team's strong voices and both players left in free agency. Morneau filled the void left by Cuddyer and it seemed like a smooth transition from the outside looking in. There probably won't be a breaking news story to say who takes on more leadership behind the closed doors of the Twins clubhouse.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] For fans, it might be more of a talking point in a season that seems to be heading for another 90 losses. Here are just a few of the names that will be asked to take on more leadership this season and next. There are pros and cons with each player so it will be interesting to see who becomes the new voice of the Twins. Joe Mauer, Catcher Pros: He is the highest paid player and the face of the franchise so it makes sense for him to be the leader of the clubhouse. Mauer is a quiet but he has been known to approach younger players when something doesn't go right on the field. In the past, he has been a leader because of his strong play on the field. He leads by example and this can be very beneficial to future Twins players. Cons: Since Mauer is a catcher, he can be very busy with his catching related duties. There are extra meetings for him to confer with the pitching staff and he spends time studying video to learn more about opposing hitters. This is all time where he is not in the clubhouse with the other players. Injuries have also forced him to miss time and he can't be a leader if he isn't traveling with the team. Glen Perkins, Closer Pros: Much like Joe Nathan before him, Perkins can become a leader because of his importance to the bullpen. The Twins have him signed for multiple years and beyond Mauer, he is the longest tenured Twins player. He came up through the Twins organization with a few bumps and bruises but he found a way to be successful at the big league level. His involvement in the community continues to grow and this is an example for other players to follow. Cons: Since Perkins is a relief arm, he spends time during the game out in the bullpen. This keeps him from being able to speak to non-pitchers on the bench for different parts of the game. Also, he isn't an everyday player so his impact on a daily basis might not always be seen on the field. He has only been a full-time closer for the current season so he might not have built up the respect he needs. Brian Dozier, Second Baseman Pros: He is in the midst of a breakout season and this has helped him become a leader on the field. Media members have cited him as always being available after tough losses as well as wins. tough. During his minor league career he showed some leadership skills and this seems to be translating to his big league career. Dozier has been performing with his bat and his glove and this can help him continue to gain respect in the locker room. Cons: While Mauer and Perkins have been with the club for multiple seasons, Dozier is still relatively new to the scene. He has less experience and less of a track record than the two names mentioned above. There are also some questions about how long he will be with the team. Eddie Rosario is slowly working his way to the big leagues and he plays the same position as Dozier. Right now, it looks like Dozier could stay at second for multiple years but it is hard to know what the future will bring. Josh Willingham, Outfielder Pros: Throughout his career, Willingham has played with multiple organizations and he has seen what leadership means to different teams. He is the oldest player on the team and his experience is well-respected by the younger players around him. His monster season last year gave him respect on the field and he has tried to play through some tough injuries this season. Younger players can approach him for advice on a multitude of topics since he has spent time playing in both leagues. Cons: There is only one year remaining on his contract with the Twins and the team could trade him at some point in the coming year. Much like Mauer, he is a quiet leader so sometimes it is tough to notice the work he is doing for the clubhouse. His play has fallen off this year and he has missed time because of injuries. If a player isn't on the field or even with the club, it can be tough to build rapport in the locker-room. Click here to view the article

Chris Colabello's time in the major leagues this year hasn't been spectacular but he has been outstanding in his time in the minors. On Wednesday, the Minnesota Twins backup first baseman was named the Most Valuable Player and the Rookie of the Year for the International League. This comes a year after finishing runner-up for MVP in the Eastern League. Download attachment: Chris+Colabello+Twins.jpg Colabello has been a hitting machine for the Red Wings. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]He currently leads the league with a .352 batting average, a .427 on-base percentage, and a .639 slugging percentage. To go along with those numbers, he entered play on Wednesday with 24 home runs (5th) and 76 RBI (3rd) over 89 games. It was quite the year for Colabello and the team will look for him to find some success at the big league level before the season is done. For now, here's a look at the minor league action from Wednesday across the Twins farm system. Rochester Red Wings 6, Syracuse Chiefs 3 Box Score Pat Dean hadn't made it out of the sixth inning in either of his last two starts but that all changed today. Over 7.2 innings, Dean gave up two earned runs and did his best to wriggle out of some jams. He scattered 11 hits and the Chiefs left multiple runners on base against him. It was the first win for Dean since August 5th. The Red Wings were outhit by the Chiefs 13 to 5 but Rochester came up with some timely hitting to push across six runs. No members of the Red Wings were able to collect more than one hit. Eric Farris had a big two-run double to cap a five run first inning. The team batted .500 with runners in scoring position and this was a big reason for their success. With the win, the Red Wings ended their six-game losing streak. It also means the club has assured themselves a winning season for the first time since 2008. New Britain Rock Cats 1, Trenton Thunder 5 Box Score New Britian got on the board first against Trenton but the Rock Cats were shut out from the second inning on. In fact, the club was limited to four hits in 30 at-bats. Reynaldo Rodriguez and Nate Hanson each added a double to their season totals. Jordan Parraz had the team's lone RBI and Miguel Sano scored the only run even though he was held hitless. Kyle Davies pitched the first two innings but he was removed after only allowing one hit and no earned runs. BJ Hermsen pitched the next four innings and the single run scored against him was unearned. Cole Johnson was saddled with the loss after surrendering two earned runs in the late innings of this one. Fort Myers Miracle 4, Palm Beach Cardinals 5 (Game 1-- 8 Innings) Box Score Fort Myers was able to mount a comeback and send this game to extra innings but the team ended up falling short. Palm Beach took a 4-0 lead in the top of the fourth before the Miracle started to claw their way back. Matt Tomshaw started for Fort Myers and he gave up four runs on four hits including two home runs. He struck out three and struggled with his control as he walked five men. Corey Williams relieved and pitched two hitless innings. Zach Jones was charged with the loss as he gave up the go-ahead run in the eighth but he was still able to strike out the side. Newly named Arizona Fall League player Byron Buxton went 1-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI. He also threw out a runner at third base. Mike Kvasnicka went 2-for-4 with two RBI to bring his season total to 39. The team went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and they left seven men on base. Fort Myers Miracle 0, Palm Beach Cardinals 1 (Game 2-- 7 innings) Box Score The story of this game for Fort Myers was Manuel Soliman. He pitched all seven innings for the Miracle while limiting the Cardinals to one run on eight hits. The lone run was scored on a second inning home run and Soliman had to work out of some jams in the sixth and seventh frames. Unfortunately, he earned the loss because the Miracle's offense was absent from this contest. Byron Buxton had a hit, a walk, and a stolen base. It was his 21st steal since being promoted to Fort Myers and he has 53 steals on the season. Fort Myers had two hits in the bottom of the seventh but a tough luck double play ended the team's chances of a comeback victory. Cedar Rapids Kernels 4, Peoria Chiefs 2 Box Score After a couple of errors from shortstop Ryan Walker, the pitching staff for the Kernels didn't allow an earned run in this game. Miguel Sulbaran earned his second victory in his third start of the year for Cedar Rapids. He pitched six frames while striking out eight. Christian Powell and Dallas Gallant held the Chiefs in check for the last three frames for the team's 84th win of the season. Mike Gonzales cracked his third home run to add an important eighth inning insurance run. Jonathan Murphy and Bo Altobelli added two hits apiece while Murphy stole his sixth bag. Joel Lincon plated a couple of runs that turned out to be the difference in the game. Elizabethton Twins 6, Princeton Rays 4 Box Score Mitch Garver helped pave the way to this victory for the E-Twins. His two doubles and three RBI were part of two big offensive innings. Engelb Vielma and Bryan Haar scored two runs apiece along with driving in a run. Hitters two through six in the order all had a hit for Elizabethton and the team was 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The E-Twins relied on the bullpen for a big chunk of this game. Andre Martinez pitched the first frame as he allowed three runs, one of them earned, on one hit with two walks. Josh Burris picked up his fourth win of the year as he pitched four shutout innings of relief. He struck out six men and limited the Rays to one hit. CK Irby and Aaron Slegers combined to pitch four innings without an earned run crossing the plate. GCL Twins 1, GCL Rays 2 Box Score Fernando Romero was outstanding on the mound for the GCL Twins. Over six shutout innings, he gave up two hits and he had five strikeouts to go along with no walks. It was the first time this season that he made it through the sixth frame. He also hasn't allowed a run in four of his last five starts. The Twins managed four total hits in this game. Brian Navarreto led the way with a 2-for-4 effort including his 10th double. Alex Swim didn't start the game but he was an early defensive replacement for Jorge Fernandez. Swim knocked a double in four trips to the plate. Click here to view the article

Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zw_MlMY_n8g/T7Ds4BCIBCI/AAAAAAAABRI/jscxapm3W00/s320/PavanoThrowing.jpg Word came out over the weekend that Carl Pavano underwent an MRI on his right shoulder to see if there was anything wrong with this important area for his throwing arm. The report came back saying he has a strained interior shoulder capsule and he could need a cortisone shot after his start on Monday night. At this point, he is not expected to miss any time for the Twins but he is sending his MRI to another doctor for a second opinion to make sure it is nothing serious. The reason for all of this concern around Pavano has been the large decrease in his velocity to start the 2012 campaign. Sometimes it can take pitchers a few starts to ramp up their velocity at the beginning of the year but he has already made seven starts this season for the Twins. Most of the offseason rust should be gone by now and his velocity should be closer to normal. This wasn't the case and the Twins needed to find some answers in relation to Pavano.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] During the last five years of his career, Pavano has averaged a fastball at 89.7 mph and last year he sat around 88.7 mph for the season. Velocity is usually going to drop as a player starts to get older and he has more wear and tear on his throwing arm. The problem for Pavano and the Twins has been the fact that the 36-year old pitcher has seen a drop in his fastball velocity to around 86.1 mph. This large drop in velocity can make a pitcher very ineffective against professional hitters and the results have shown on the field. In the last two seasons, Pavano has been the workhorse of the Twins pitching staff by throwing over 220 inning in 2010 and 2011. His ERA and WHIP have gone up in each of the last two years but he has 10 complete games and three shutouts during that time frame. His consistency was something the Twins could count on in the Target Field era and he could have put up much better numbers last season with a competent defensive unit behind him. The Twins seem to have a better defense lined up behind Pavano this year with the additions of Jamey Carroll and Brian Dozier. So if he was able to generate more ground balls, the defensive should be able to make the plays for Pavano to be successful. His first two full seasons with the Twins saw Pavano generate ground balls over 50% of the time. He has seen that number drop significantly to 44.8% in his seven starts so far for the Twins in 2012. The Twins outfield defense has some holes this year so the increase in fly balls from Pavano could also be a concern. With his drop in velocity, Pavano has been forced to change in pitching philosophy on the mound. For his career, Pavano has thrown fastballs as 62.0% of his pitches, sliders for 18.6% of the time, and change ups for 18.3% of his throws. His age and change in velocity have forced him to rely more on his off-speed pitches in the last two seasons and this switch has continued so far this year. His fastball has lost some velocity and Pavano has spent less time throwing his heater (58.2%) and started to throw more of his change up (25.4%). The mounting struggles for Pavano make it hard not to think about his future in baseball. The aging pitcher is not under contract for next season and his time as an impact starter might already be behind him. There is still plenty of time left in the season for Pavano to iron out the kinks with his shoulder issue but age can make recovery harder for a pitcher. Baseball has seen Jamie Moyer defy age and injuries to pitch in the starting rotation for the Rockies at age 49. With all the openings the Twins will have in their rotation for next year, the Twins can only hope that Pavano is able follow in the footsteps of Moyer and continue to pitch effectively as he gets closer to 40-years old. Click here to view the article

Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan Baseball is back!!! It was great to get home from work early on Thursday to a ton of action already underway across the baseball universe. I flipped through multiple games because my cable company was nice enough to give me a free preview of MLB Extra Innings. It is very tempting to want to purchase the package for the entire year but I might have to settle for the free pass for the first few days of the season. I checked in on the Nationals with Stephen Strasburg on the mound and Wilson Ramos behind the plate. Jose Valverde was a perfect 49 out of 49 in save opportunites last season but his first chance this year was unsuccessful. The Marlins had a short turn around after they opened their new stadium on Wednesday night in Miami and they had to be in Cincinnati for an afternoon game the next day. I ended the night by listening to the best announcer in the game, Vin Scully. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Opening Day is the greatest time of the year. The Twins start their 2012 campaign in Baltimore tonight and they have their home opener on Monday afternoon. It's just a wonderful time to be a baseball fan. Here are some of the top stories I enjoyed from the past week. Have a great weekend with baseball back in our lives. Ron Gardenhire announced the Opening Day lineup for the Twins and the outfield defense could be scary.The Twins didn't have a game on Thursday but Scott Baker pitched for the Miracle and the news was not good.MLB released their annual list of the top 20 jerseys sold and there is one member of the Twins who made the list.Seth Stohs asked for a few writers (including myself) to project the top hitters and the top pitchers for the start of the Twins minor league season.Torii Hunter went from sitting on his couch one evening to having the police draw their guns on him.Have you ever wondered where walkup music came from?Andrew at Twins Fan From Afar got to spend an evening with Twins pitching prospect Alex Wimmers.Target Field unveiled their new food selections for the year and John Bonnes got to test out some of the new items.There are many reasons to be excited for the start of the new year but here are 100 different reasons to start your own list.There are a lot of tough jobs in the sports world but catching might be at the top of the list.This photo was floating around different websites on Thursday and I found it amusing.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RgaE0VuxzEY/T35dveupRoI/AAAAAAAABK4/reNfCOnJ9SQ/s320/opening-day-friends.jpg After one of the worst seasons in baseball history, Adam Dunn will start the year as the number three hitter in the White Sox lineup.Jim Crikkett from Knuckelballs blog got his call up to the big leagues by getting to write a post on the Star Tribune website about his time in Florida.What do you get when you mix Bert Blyleven and singing animal puppets? It's a little scary...Rod Carew makes this list of top 10 baseball legends and humanitarians.Former Twins ace Johan Santana returned to the mound for the Mets. If his results continue to look good, could the Mets try to trade him to a contender?Justin Verlander eats a lot of Taco Bell before each of his starts.Ramon Ortiz pitched 28 ineffective games for the Twins in 2007 and the Yankees just signed him this week.My Weekly Rundown (Predictions Week): Sunday: A season of what could beMonday: 2012 American League PredictionsTuesday: 2012 National League PredictionsWednesday: 2012 Twins Award PredictionsThursday: 2012 Twins Minor League ProjectionsVideo of the Week: The Twins have released some very clever commercials over the years and this newest one fits into that mold. In this Big Lebowski-themed spot, Kent Hrbek is asked to take on the title role of the "Big Hrbowski." Span leaves the team in a tough spot with the 7/10 split but Hrbek is called on to make the impossible shot. Click here to view the article

Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well the Twins made their series in the Bronx much more enjoyable than was originally anticipated by many fans in Twins Territory. The offense seems to be clicking on all cylinders and the bullpen has been surprisingly good in some tough situations against a very good line-up. Hopefully this positive momentum will carry over into their weekend series with the Rays and the Twins can start the climb back to the .500 mark. The baseball world had plenty of stories from the entire week and the headlines will continue to roll in as the season progresses. Ozzie Guillen returned to the Marlins, Matt Cain and Cliff Lee got caught up in a pitcher's duel, Jamie Moyer seemed to defy Father Time, and Ivan Rodriguez is set to retire as a member of the Rangers. There were plenty of stories from the Twins organization as well. So let's jump in and see what's in store for this edition of "Friday Links-N-Thinks."[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Anthony Swarzak and Liam Hendriks are fighting for a spot in the rotation and Parker Hageman analyzes who has the inside track.Everyone knows the Twins cut payroll this year but how does that compare to the rest of the league.The Twins aren't going to carry 13 pitchers for the entire season so Minnesota Twins Musings looks at the roster shuffle that is coming in the near future.We are two weeks into the season and JC over at Knuckleballs tries to figure out who the Twins are.Luke Hughes was designated for assignment a couple of days ago and over at The tenth inning stretch they discuss how the Aussie got a rotten deal.At the beginning of the spring, Ben Revere was set to be a starting outfielder with the Twins. So how did he end up back in Rochester?Scott Baker went in for his elbow clean-up and woke up to find out the doctor's performed Tommy John surgery.Twins Fan From Afar continues to write some great coverage on the Rock Cats and he wrote about the lackluster coverage from the World Wide Leader in Sports.One of my favorite blogs to follow about the Twins is Baseball Outsider and he finally got a Twitter account so make sure to follow him.Twins top prospect Miguel Sano has been a beast for the Beloit Snappers by hitting his sixth home run of the season last night. MiLB wrote a feature article explaining his hot start.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O6rhjRlG80M/T5FNyo1hoXI/AAAAAAAABMw/0bf_7oKKbPE/s320/SanoSnappers.jpg Who would be on the All-Time Baseball Dream Team? Baseball: Past and Present come up with their starting nine.There are plenty of former Twins across MLB and Puckett's Pond took a look at how they have started the year.Current AL Central foe Prince Fielder stole a base earlier this week and it was a fun sight to see.Do you remember that famous blooper reel shot where Jose Canseco has the home run ball bounce off of the top of his head? Now you can buy the hat that was on his head for that famous play.Dear Football Writers, please don't write about baseball.Last week I had a link to a play where Delmon Young did a 360 trying to catch the ball. The ruling on the field after the play was a triple so MLB had to step in.The Twins just saw first hand how long a game can take in the Bronx. So which AL Central team has the fastest working rotation?Jim Leyland thinks the experts that make predictions at the beginning of the season are a bunch of idiots. He's probably right.My Weekly Rundown: Monday: Are we living in the "Golden Age" of catchers?Tuesday: Morneau's changing role leaving Parmelee behindWednesday: 2012 MLB Draft starting to come into focusThursday: Mixed messages might have messed up LirianoVideo of the Week: Since the Twins were in NYC, they made time to visit the MLB Fan Cave. It also made sense because Lindsay Guentzel, a Minnesota native, is one of the nine fans hanging out in the MLB Fan Cave. Check out this video done with Joe Mauer during his visit and you can even make out Brian Duensing in the background. Click here to view the article

For the Minnesota Twins, the last handful of trade deadlines have been mostly uneventful. This seems out of character for a team that has posted one of baseball's worst records the last few seasons. There are different ways for a team to rebuild and the Twins were very active during last offseason by dealing away Denard Span and Ben Revere. Minnesota doesn't necessarily need to now move pieces that will still be with the club in the offseason. That being said, it would make the most sense to say goodbye to Justin Morneau. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] His contract will be expiring at the end of the season and the Twins won't be in contention this year. This would give him a chance to help a contender and the club could go after him in free agency if they felt that was in their best interest. Here is a look back at the moves made during the last three trade deadlines. Even though there haven't been any major moves in the last couple years, there has been an impact on the depth of the organization. There have been ripple effects from dealing away the team's best catching prospect and last year's pair of players has helped the current team, a bit. Download attachment: Francisco-Liriano.jpg 2012 Headline: Liriano dealt to White Sox for pair of players The potential was always there with Francisco Liriano but the on-field results were spotty. Since his contract was expiring at the end of the year, it made sense for the Twins to deal him. Many fans thought the Twins should have been able to get more for Liriano. Instead the club got infielder Eduardo Escobar and pitcher Pedro Hernandez. Liriano went 3-2 with the White Sox and he posted a 5.40 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP over 11 starts. According to Baseball Reference, his time in Chicago was good for 0.3 WAR. Escobar has played 69 games over the last two seasons with the Twins. He has hit .217/.268/.303 with three home runs, two doubles and two triples. He got plenty of playing time at the beginning of this year when the Twins were still trying to sort out their middle infield situation. He has been worth 0.3 WAR for the Twins. Hernandez has started seven games and pitched in nine games for Minnesota. He has a 3-1 record with a 5.54 ERA and a 1.69 WHIP. He has added some depth to the minor league pitching staff but he probably won't have a long-term impact on the big league club, unless it's as a reliever. 2011 Headline: To trade or not to trade, that is the question. There were expiring contracts for Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel but the team still wasn't able to make any moves before the deadline. After a brutal April and May, the Twins posted records above .500 in June and July. This might have given the front office a false sense of hope. Minnesota was only seven games under .500 in the first half of the year. At the end of July, the club had a 50-58 record and they were only seven games out of first place in the AL Central. Unfortunately, the second half of the season turned out to be dreadful. Fans were forced to have faith that the club would climb back into the race. This would never happen and Cuddyer and Kubel left the team in the offseason. There may not have been deals on the table for these corner outfielders and it is hard to know what goes on in the general manager's office. Still, it looked silly to have veteran players with expiring contracts on a club that was headed very close to a 100-loss season. 2010 Headline: Capps acquired for stretch run In one of the most scrutinized deals in Twins history, Matt Capps was acquired from the Washington Nationals for prized catching prospect Wilson Ramos. The Twins were in the middle of another tight division race and the back end of the bullpen might have needed a little boost. Joe Nathan had suffered an elbow injury in spring training and the club had used Jon Rauch as closer for most of the first half. Adding Capps to the mix only strengthened the bullpen and he could have been a key piece if the club had gone on a lengthy run in October. As fans know, this didn't happen but the deal would have looked better with Capps closing out games in the ALDS, ALCS, and even the World Series. The cost for Capps was steep. Ramos was working his way toward the big leagues and he had even had an impressive debut in Minnesota. The Twins already had Joe Mauer entrenched behind the plate so keeping Ramos around wasn't a necessity. Since joining the Nationals, there have been some injury concerns as he played only 25 games last season and a little over 30 games in 2013. He continues to hit for power and he has posted a career .271/.334/.447 batting line in the National League. Ramos hasn't turned into the next Johnny Bench and that might be a good thing for Twins fans. Click here to view the article

The Fourth of July holiday means that the All-Star Break is quickly approaching and the Twins are near a break that might be good for a team that is struggling to find pitchers for their starting staff. There has been a well-worn road from Rochester to Minneapolis as the Twins try to find players to record outs for the big league club. Casey Fien and Sam Deduno will be the latest Red Wings to get called up to play with the Twins. After putting together five consecutive wins, the Twins lost back to back contests in Detroit. The loss on Thursday afternoon might have been the most disappointing as the Twins looked to be in control after a strong start from Scott Diamond. In the end, the big bats for Detroit prevailed against the Twins bullpen and now the team will head to Texas to end the first half against one of the toughest teams in the AL.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The Rangers are the two-time defending AL Champions and they will trot out eight All-Stars. At the same time, the Twins have one current All-Star and 14 more losses than the Rangers. It could be a rough weekend in Arlington but it will be fun to see what Josh Willingham and Trevor Plouffe can do in the heat of Texas. Could it be time for the Twins to think about a contract extension with Francisco Liriano?Some possible trade targets for the Twins include the Reds, the Yankees, the Braves, and the Dodgers.Denard Span could be one of the players traveling to a new team by the end of the month.One of the most controversial articles of the week had Reggie Jackson state that he thinks former Twins Kirby Puckett and Bert Blyleven don't belong with him in the Hall of Fame.The end of June meant it was time to name the minor league hitter of the month, the starting pitcher of the month, and the relief pitcher of the month for the Twins.Trevor Plouffe has been something to enjoy in Minnesota.Detroit's defense is fun to watch.AJ Pierzynski spoke out about his poor reputation across the baseball world.This squibber by Brian Dozier was amazing to see and hard to explain to someone that wasn't able to witness it happen.http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GNjDUCmQTiI/T_Y77q0m_9I/AAAAAAAACow/mGqgf6XxakI/s1600/Brian+Dozier+Squibber.gif With Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Matt Moore graduating to the big leagues, who is left as the top prospect in the minor leagues?There were two big hockey signings in Minnesota this week and Joe Mauer and Ron Gardenhire did their best to recruit Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.One of the biggest talking points of the 4th might have been explaining to friends and family about the Twins sending 30-year old Nick Blackburn to Triple-A.Ozzie Guillen blew up at reporters after Heath Bell blew another loss for the Marlins.A coach in the A's organization got banned from the bench after he ordered intentional balks to end an extra-inning affair.It's interesting to think of the Twins team as pairs of twins.The window for signing 16-year old international players opened earlier this week and the Twins scooped up the 12th best prospect according to Baseball America.There was some who questioned the Twins All-Star selection over the weekend but what about the All-Stars of the future.What should the Orioles expect from Jim Thome?My Weekly Rundown Monday: Mauer elected and "fans" revoltTuesday: Tuesday Morning TidbitsTuesday's Trip through the MinorsVideo of the Week: It is still an honor for any player to be selected to the All-Star Game even if it is Mauer's fifth trip to the Mid-Summer Classic. The Twins had a cool video that they threw together to see how the team announced that Mauer would be representing the Twins in Kansas City. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Plouffe_Trevor_Throwing_US_720.jpg Plouffe re-entered the Twins line-up this weekend with a bang. This was great to see from the former first round pick but one has to look at the future of Twins' baseball and wonder what his place will be. It seems as if the Twins are still a couple years away from contending and that could mean change for the 27-year-old Plouffe. Twins fans will best remember Plouffe for his Ruthian hot streak during the middle of last season. In a stretch of 14 games he hit .375/.397/.982 with 10 home runs and four doubles. It looked like the Twins had found their man at third base, but a hand injury slowed him down considerably. Fans were left wondering what version of Plouffe the Twins would have in 2013. So far this season, Plouffe has missed time on the 7-day concussion DL; this was quickly followed by another DL trip for a leg injury. He has played in 39 games and he has hit .264/.344/.457 with five home runs and 10 doubles. His batting average is higher than any point at last season and this has helped some of his other numbers improve. One of the problems facing Plouffe in the future might be the players coming up behind him. Deibinson Romero has put together strong numbers this season at Double-A and Triple-A. This leaves him a step away from the big leagues and the Twins might be willing to give him a look at some point this season. Further behind in Plouffe's rearview mirror is uber-prospect Miguel Sano. The Twins recently promoted Sano to Double-A and some of the best prospects in baseball don't even make the stop at Triple-A. Sano will probably be in New Britain for the rest of this season but that hardly means he couldn't be in the mix for the starting third base job in 2014. In the past, there have been questions about Sano's ability to stick at third. He originally was a raw at the hot corner, after starting out as a shortstop, and one of his biggest improvements over the last couple of years has been his defense. Last season, he had 42 errors in 361 chances at third. This season he has 12 errors in 170 chances. As we gaze into our crystal ball and look toward the future of Twins baseball, there are a few different situations that could transpire for Plouffe: 1. Move to a corner outfield spot: When Michael Cuddyer didn't work out at third base, the club moved him to a corner outfield spot and this is where he truly began to flourish. He went on to earn his lone All-Star selection as an outfielder and he became a strong veteran presence in the clubhouse. Plouffe would need to continue to make improvements at the plate and if he can make those adjustments, this seems the most likely path. 2. Stay at third base: If Sano has to be moved from third base to first base, Plouffe could more easily be seen staying at third. For the majority of his minor league career, Plouffe was a shortstop so he has been learning his third base skills on the fly. Plouffe has been below average on defense so he would need to continue to improve. 3. Find another team: There is a strong crop of minor league players moving through the organization and this youth movement could push Plouffe to the side. The Twins have control of Plouffe through the arbitration process until 2018. He then would be 32 years old and his production might be less than what the Twins would have to pay him. This could mean a new organization for Mr. Plouffe. Overall, the Twins hope Plouffe's performance on the field makes it an easy decision to keep him around and in the line-up on a daily basis. Sano's progress likely will have a lot of influence on Plouffe staying at third base or not, but a corner outfield spot might be a welcomed sight for Plouffe as he gets closer to 30. There are a lot of variables to the puzzle of Trevor Plouffe's future. Fans can hope he better figures things out at the plate and in the field to become a strong veteran player on some Twins' teams that should, in a year or two, be back near the top of the American League Central. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: hyperlink.jpg The week was dominated by the horrific bombings at the Boston Marathon, but there were numerous positive stories coming out of the tragedy, such as when a former New England Patriots lineman carried a woman to safety. Many teams around the world of baseball paid tribute to Boston. "Sweet Caroline," which has become synonymous with Red Sox games, was played by most teams during a break in the action; even the rival Yankees stood united in support of Boston. Here are the fans at Target Field singing "Sweet Caroline." Baseball continued to go on and there were some great stories from across the web. Have a safe weekend and give someone you love a call.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Chris Colabello has one of the best stories in baseball.How does Joe Mauer do when it comes to catcher framing? Twins starters pitch to contact and that is killing them this year. AJ Petterson is playing with some very good players and he offers his early season highlights. There has been more than one Twins player who got a "cup of coffee" with the club. Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario are helping the Miracle to a record start. Sano already has one movie about his rise and they are working on a sequel. Glen Perkins is always an interesting interview. Aaron Hicks set a record and it wasn't one a player wants to set. Mauer and David Wright forged a friendship in the WBC. "Delmon's going to be as good as Delmon wants to be." Here is a cool list of all the players that have debuted this year with the scouts that signed them. A couple of Twins players are on the list. IMDb released their top 10 baseball movies of all-time.Here are my top 5 baseball films: Bull Durham Sandlot Major League A League Of Their Own Field of Dreams Beyond the Boxscore did some great research creating Pitcher Similarity Scores based on Pitchf/x data. Denard Span didn't know what a double-switch was. Jackie Robinson gets a lot the press but Larry Doby was just as important in the AL. Bert Blyleven never had anyone charge him but he did charge the mound once himself. Lance Berkman really doesn't like Wrigley Field.There is more than one way to deal with hecklers in the stands. Former Twins pitcher Kyle Waldrop had an impressive first start at the Triple-A level.My Weekly Rundown: Monday: Talk to Contact: Episode 33Tuesday: Finding solutions for struggling Aaron Hicks Wednesday: Arcia's ascension could mean Willingham's exit Wednesday's Minor League Wrap-Up Video of the Week: It is hard for Ben Revere to amaze after some of the plays he made in a Twins uniform, but this catch from earlier this week might leave you with your mouth open. He misplays the ball a little at the beginning and has to make up for it at the end with a Superman like jump. It was a very cool play by a good defensive center fielder. Click here to view the article

Joe Mauer sat out his first Twins game of the season on Wednesday. But even with Mauer out of the line-up, the Twins were able to come away with a win and avoid being swept by the Detroit Tigers. Scott Diamond pitched six strong innings, giving up two earned runs and four hits for his second win of the year. Justin Morneau and Chris Parmelee each had a pair of hits and a couple of RBI. There were some other impressive performances down on the farm. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]Unfortunately, there were no Trevor May sightings on May Day but let's take a look at Wednesday's results from the Twins farm system. On this week's episode of the Talk to Contact Podcast, we discussed a lot about the minor leagues so make sure to check it out. Rochester Red Wings (Scheduled Off Day) The Red Wings enjoyed a scheduled off day after finishing the month of April with a 10-16 record. The club sits eight games out of first place in the International League North Division. Rochester has turned it around a little in their last ten games by posting a 6-4 record. As part of their off day, the club announced that Rafael Perez was activated from the disabled list. Perez, a former member of the Cleveland Indians, was a minor league free agent this past offseason before deciding to sign with the Twins organization. He missed 26 games as he was recovering from the left shoulder surgery he underwent last September. To make room for Perez on the roster, the Red Wings sent Bobby Lanigan back to Double-A. Lanigan had only made one appearance since being called up last week. He earned the save of Friday while pitching 0.1 innings with a strikeout. Rochester used today as travel day to get to Columbus before opening a four-game series versus the Clippers on Thursday. New Britain Rock Cats 4, Harrisburg Senators 0 Box Score Logan Darnell and Daniel Ortiz stole the show for the Rock Cats on Wednesday evening. Both players were at the center of New Britain's 14th win of the season. Darnell threw seven shutout innings, scattering five singles. He struck out six and allowed only two walks. It was his third win of the season and lowered his ERA to 2.16. It was the most impressive start of the year for Darnell and it looks like his second time through the Eastern League will come with more positive results. Download attachment: Logan Darnell 3.jpg Aaron Thompson continued his very good season out of the bullpen. He recorded the last six outs of the game and allowed only one base runner. His 0.97 ERA is the best on New Britain’s pitching staff. In his six appearances this season, he has only allowed one run and one walk. Ortiz was the big man on the offensive side of the ball. He went 3-for-4 with his fourth home run of the season, which ranks second on the team behind Josmil Pinto. In the last three games, Ortiz now has compiled a four hit game and a three hit game. Reynaldo Rodriguez and James Beresford each added two hits. Rodriguez had a triple and two RBI. New Britain will look to notch their third straight series win with a victory on Thursday. The club sits in the middle of the pack in the Eastern League Eastern Division. Only five games separate the first and last place club so there could be a lot of movement in the coming weeks. Fort Myers Miracle --, Clearwater Threshers -- (Cancelled) Inclement weather interfered with the Miracle's game in Clearwater on Wednesday afternoon. The teams don't meet again in the first half of the season so the game will not be made up. The Miracle are currently riding a seven-game winning streak after they won the first three games of the series against Clearwater. Fort Myers currently has a 21-4 record and the club sits five games ahead of their closest competitor in the Florida State League's South Division. The St. Lucie Mets are the team behind the Miracle in the standings and they happen to be the next team on their schedule. The two clubs will open a series in Fort Myers on Thursday night. It is the start of a seven-game homestand at Hammond Stadium. Cedar Rapids Kernels 2, West Michigan Whitecaps 7 Box Score The Kernels jumped out to a two run lead but the Whitecaps pitching staff shut down the offense for the rest of the game. A big bottom of the fifth inning broke open the game and West Michigan walked away with the victory. The loss snapped a nine game winning streak for the Kernels. In the first inning, Byron Buxton walked to start the game. Niko Goodrum followed with a single and an error on the play allowed both runners to advance a base. Back-to-back sacrifice flies by Jorge Polanco and Dalton Hicks put the Kernels up 2-0. Brett Lee started his third game of the year for Cedar Rapids and was saddled with his first loss. Through six innings he kept the game close but in the bottom of the seventh the first batter singled and this was followed by a home run that signaled Lee's exit. Tim Atherton didn't provide much relief as he would go on to allow three more runs in the seventh. He had a throwing error, gave up a home run, and allowed two stolen bases. Josh Burris pitched a hitless inning and gave up a walk. It was the second appearance for Burris since he joined the team earlier this week. The Kernels will look to get back to their winning ways as the team continues their series with West Michigan over the next two days. Today's game was the first in a 12-game road trip for Cedar Rapids. The team won't return home until May 14th so the team will have to find ways to win road games. Click here to view the article

It is officially the first day of summer and that means action will be heating up across the baseball world. The Twins found themselves in a pitchers duel in Pittsburgh with Francisco Liriano throwing one of his best games of the year. A rough seventh inning meant that Liriano wasn't able to pick up the win but a late inning home run from Josh Willingham pushed the Twins to a 2-1 victory. Some injuries to the Rochester bullpen forced the Twins to make some transactions in the farm system. Carlos Gutierrez (shoulder) and Lester Oliveros (elbow) are both going to miss time for the Red Wings and this means Bobby Lanigan and Caleb Thielbar will be joining Rochester from New Britain. Edgar Ibarra is moving from Fort Myers to New Britain and taking his place on the Miracle roster is Michael Tonkin. Cole Johnson was the other transaction on Wednesday as he moves from the E-Twins to the Snappers. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The Twins officially signed RHP Luke Bard, taken 42nd overall in the 2012 draft. With his signing, the Twins have inked their first 10 picks in the draft. This is a good sign and it seems to show that players are more willing to sign early with the new rules in the CBA. Don't forget to check out the Twins Minor League Weekly Podcast tomorrow night at 9:00 pm. Seth Stohs should have plenty of topics to discuss with the transactions mentioned above and the start of the short-season leagues. ROCHESTER 7, DURHAM 6 It was quite the back and forth contest against the Durham Bulls in Rochester with the Red Wings managing to come out victorious. With Rochester leading by one in the top of the ninth, the Bulls managed to score two runs and take the lead back. In the bottom of the ninth, Tsuyoshi Nishioka started the inning by cracking a double. After a sacrifice bunt from Pedro Florimon, Wilkin Ramirez stepped into the box and fell into a 0-2 count. The next pitch was hit over the fence for a two-run walk-off home run and the fans got to go home happy. Cole DeVries had started the game and he lasted 6.1 innings by giving up four runs on 11 hits. Tyler Robertson picked up his second victory of the year after he got the last two outs of the ninth inning. Brian Dinkelman had three hits with an RBI to help the offense. In the second inning, Matt Carson hit his fifth home run on the year and he has three home runs in the last four games. NEW BRITAIN 4, ALTOONA 9 Gerrit Cole, the number one pick in the 2011 MLB Draft, made his debut at Double-A on Wednesday night. Unfortunately for the Rock Cats, he didn't have any issues with the transition to a higher league and threw five innings while giving up two runs and striking out six. He was also backed up by plenty of run support so this made his first victory at this level a little easier. Brett Jacobson was charged with seven earned runs in three innings on the mound. He walked five batters and gave up multiple home runs. Aaron Hicks had his first multiple hit game in his last ten contests and this included his ninth double and second triple of the year. Chris Colabello got half of the team's RBI with his two singles in the game. In his second game since being promoted, Oswaldo Arcia had his first hit, a double in the eighth inning. FORT MYERS 7, JUPITER 3 A solid offensive night was put together by the Miracle on Wednesday evening in Jupiter. They put up seven runs on 12 hits to back a good start from Madison Boer. In five innings of work, Boer surrendered two runs on five hits and struck out four. Ricky Bowen did a good job in relief by almost pitching 2 innings and only giving up a hit. For Boer, it was his third win of the year with all three of those wins coming in June. Five batters for the Miracle had multiple hit nights with Kyle Knudson leading the way with a 3-for-5 night. Andy Leer knocked in a couple runs with his two hits and he hit his six double of the year. The only other extra-base hit came off of the bat of Danny Rams, who also scored two runs in the game. BELOIT (All-Star Break) The Snappers are enjoying their All-Star Break and will resume play on Friday night with a series in Cedar Rapids. After qualifying for the playoffs in the first half of the season, it will be interesting to see how the Snappers come out in the second half. ELIZABETHTON 10, DANVILLE 0 The story on this night should be the pitcher that started the game for the E-Twins. Ricardo Arevalo, a 21-year old pitcher from Venezuela, has pitched in the Twins organization for the last three years for the DSL Twins and the GCL Twins. In those three years, he had never been able to pick up a victory on the mound but that all changed on Wednesday. He threw five shutout innings and the bullpen was able to cover the rest of the game for his first professional win. In this contest, the E-Twins found plenty of offense with multiple extra base hits on the way to double digits being scored by the club. There were four triples in the game for the E-Twins and Niko Goodrum hit two of those three baggers with three runs batted in. Rory Rhodes had three hits and Michael Quesada managed his first two doubles in the young season. GCL TWINS 6, GCL RAYS 2 A strong start from Josue Montanez helped the GCL Twins to get out to an early lead on the GCL Rays. Montanez tossed four scoreless innings while striking out six and allowing a single hit. Both runs for the Rays were scored off of Markus Solbach in his one inning of work. The Rays sloppy defense helped the Twins to a big bottom of the third inning. Three consecutive errors by the Rays fielders allowed the Twins to score four runs in the frame. Aderlin Mejia was 3-for-4 in the game with his second double of the year. Bryan Haar added a double of his own while going 2-for-3 with two RBI. --- Players of the Day for Wednesday, June 20, 2012 Hitter of the Day- Niko Goodrum http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xR7sglofICU/T-KFFf6JTkI/AAAAAAAACRw/Q6SnlZrGv3U/s1600/Goodrum-Niko.jpg Pitcher of the Day- Ricardo Arevalo (1st Professional Win) http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1yonnoNr2ZI/T-KFZ1cx_KI/AAAAAAAACR4/i2Tl1oaML90/s320/elizabethtontwins.jpg --- A Look Ahead- Thursday, June 21st Schedule Rochester vs Durham- LHP Matt Maloney New Britain at Altoona- LHP Aaron Thompson Fort Myers vs St. Lucie-LHP Pat Dean Beloit (All-Star Break) Elizabethon at Danville- LHP Corey Kimes GCL Twins at GCL Rays- TBA --- If you have any questions or comments on the Twins minor league system, leave them in the comments section and Seth or I will try to answer them. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Glen+Perkins+Minnesota+Twins.jpg For the first time since Eddie Guardado, the team will enter next season with a homegrown pitcher as the closer. Glen Perkins exploded onto the scene in 2011 and he continued that success into 2012 by providing dominant relief. All of this came after he failed to sustain success as a starter and looked like he might be out of the Twins future plans. Back in 2009, Perkins and his agent had the players association file a grievance against the Twins for a variety of reasons. He has come a long way from that point and has put together stellar seasons in back-to-back years. Last week the Twins ended their long, strange love affair with Matt Capps by declining his option for next season. There should be little doubt about who will be getting the majority of the save opportunities for the club going forward. Perkins has posted an ERA of 2.52 since the beginning of 2011 and his WHIP is a very good 1.129 in those two campaigns. Unlike Capps, Perkins has shown the ability to strikeout batters on a regular basis with his SO/9 averaging 9.8 in the last two years and he set a career high in this department last season with 10 SO/9. When Capps went down last season, Ron Gardenhire used an interesting approach for a few of the late inning situations. Since Perkins is a left-handed pitcher, Gardenhire would sometimes turn to right-handed pitcher Jared Burton for the ninth inning. usually when some key batters were right-handed hitters. A few weeks of using a double-headed closer was enough for Gardenhire; Burton wouldn't record a save in the last couple months of the season. Perkins was the man at the end of the game and it seems Gardenhire likes knowing which pitcher will be getting the final outs for his team. Finding other relief options like Jared Burton has helped the Twins to solidify their bullpen in the last year. The team took a flyer on Joel Zumaya during last offseason but that risk didn't work out. Casey Fien emerged as a very reliable option by keeping runners off of the bases and keeping the ball in the park. Alex Burnett had the best season of his career and Brian Duensing did fine when he was used out of the bullpen and not as a starter. Anthony Swazak, like Duensing, fared much better as a relief pitcher versus being a starter. There seems to be a decent core of arms building around Perkins in the bullpen. It has been a long journey for Perkins. The Twins drafted him in the first round of the 2004 Draft and he would make his debut by the end of 2006. Injuries forced him him to pitch a limited amount of innings in 2007, but he pitched a career high in innings during the 2008 campaign. The 2009 and 2010 seasons were his last as a starting pitcher and he struggled to keep his ERA anywhere near 5.00 in his time at the MLB and Triple-A. It was time to try a different approach with Perkins so he was sent to the bullpen to try and save his career. This decision turned out to be the right move as he made great strides in the last two seasons. Shifting to the bullpen added more velocity to his fastball and made him tougher to hit. He struck out a career high 78 batters this season in 70.1 innings when his previous high had been 74 batters - but that was in 151 innings on the mound. Perkins has reinvented himself as a relief pitcher and it seems like he continues to gain confidence on the mound with each late inning opportunity. There have been plenty of things to be down about in regards to the Twins in the past two seasons but the emergence of Perkins as the closer of the present and the future is not one of them. He has offered a small glimmer of hope to fans in back-to-back terrible years. His road to the role of full time closer with the Twins had plenty of bumps along the way but the transformation from starting pitcher to set-up man and finally to closer seems like the perfect path for the former first round pick. He'll start next year as the closer for the Twins and fans hope the team can follow the path of Perkins by reinventing the franchise for the future success. Click here to view the article

When a team has lost 90 games in three consecutive seasons, there can be plenty of finger pointing. For the Twins, there are questions to ask about how this current roster was created and what the team can do as they try to move forward. Download attachment: fishing.jpg Where are the holes in this roster? What needs to be done this offseason? Are there internal options to help remedy the situation? These questions and more need to be answered before the team heads to Florida for spring training. Let's take a look at each position and try to figure out how the Twins can get out of this mess.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] A fishing bobber ranking will accompany each position. One bobber means the position needs to be addressed, two bobbers means the position is steady, and three bobbers means the position is looking good going forward. Catcher 2013 Starter: Joe Mauer Other Options: Ryan Doumit, Josmil Pinto, Chris Herrmann There are questions about Mauer moving forward from his concussion-related issues. Doumit suffered some concussion issues of his own. At the end of the season, Pinto looked great but can he sustain this kind of production at the big league level? This should be a position for the Twins not to worry about but Mauer's concussion issues bring down this ranking. Ranking: One Bobber First Base 2013 Starter: Justin Morneau (Out of the Organization) Other Options: Joe Mauer, Chris Colabello, Chris Parmelee Mauer's head troubles could mean a change of position and first base might be his new home by the beginning of next season. Colabello and Parmelee have shown success at Triple-A but it hasn't translated to the big leagues. This could be a spot where the team looks outside the organization for help since there are three left-handed bats and plenty of question marks. Ranking: One Bobber Second Base 2013 Starter: Brian Dozier Other Options: Eduardo Escobar, Eddie Rosario In a breakout season, Dozier made Twins fans forget his disastrous rookie campaign. He seems to have locked up second base going into next season but Rosario is close to knocking on the door. Rochester will be Rosario's home to start 2014 but a stumble from Dozier could mean Rosario's rise to the big leagues. This position battle will be one to watch moving forward. Ranking: Three Bobbers Third Base 2013 Starter: Trevor Plouffe Other Options: Miguel Sano, Deibinson Romero Plouffe struggled for most of 2013 but ended the year with a strong month of September. The Twins are going to want to see Sano at the big league level sometime in 2014. After Hicks' terrible 2013 season, the club will probably take it slow with Sano. A hot start in Triple-A from Sano could mean the end of Plouffe's tenure at third base. Ranking: Three Bobbers Shortstop 2013 Starter: Pedro Florimon Other Options: Danny Santana, Eduardo Escobar Last season, Florimon showed his defensive prowess but his offense continues to be offensive. In the minor leagues, Santana continues to hit but there are giant question marks about his defense. Florimon is the likely starter but Santana's offensive ability is something to watch. Overall, shortstop is a tough spot in the higher levels of the organization. Ranking: One Bobber Left Field 2013 Starter: Josh Willingham Other Options: Oswaldo Arcia, Trevor Plouffe Willingham followed his tremendous 2012 season with an injury-filled 2013. Arcia had some up and down moments in his rookie year but he still showed the power stroke he had been known for in the minors. As the team looks to the future, it might make sense for Willingham spend more time at DH. Plouffe could see more time in the outfield when Sano arrives. Ranking: Two Bobbers Center Field 2013 Starter: Aaron Hicks Other Options: Byron Buxton, Alex Presley When the Twins handed the starting center field job to Hicks last year, they hoped the young man would take the position and run. Luckily for Twins fans, Buxton burst onto the scene in 2013. It could still be a couple years before Buxton makes it to the big leagues and this would leave a hole in center field. The future looks bright with Buxton but there are still questions about what Hicks will be able to do in 2014. Ranking: Two Bobbers Right Field 2013 Starter: Chris Parmelee Other Options: Aaron Hicks, Darin Mastroianni The Twins could be searching for options at this position moving forward. Parmelee and Hicks had disappointing seasons and Mastroianni was hurt for most of the year. Arcia could see some time at this spot if the Twins continue to use Willingham defensively. If Hicks can fix his offensive woes, this could be his spot when Buxton arrives on the scene. Ranking: One Bobber What kind of bobber rankings would you give the Twins position players? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. Click here to view the article

Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Another week has come and gone for Twins Territory and the hometown nine have started to stir the pot a little bit when it comes to their roster. Brian Dozier, the organization's minor league player of the year from 2011, made his debut earlier in the week. He has been impressive so far and the Twins hope he can continue to play at a high level. After leading all American League third basemen in games played in 2011, Danny Valencia has found himself back in Triple-A. In 2010, Valencia looked great for the Twins but he has failed to get back to that form in the last two years. His minor league track record suggested something like this might happen and now the Twins might try and trade Mr. Valencia. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Speaking of not being in form, Francisco Liriano has struggled mightily for the entire year and it was time for a change. After the team skipped his spot in the rotation, he still failed to produce results on the mound. For the time being, he has been moved to the bullpen and the front office called up PJ Walters to take his spot in the rotation. The Blue Jays come to town this weekend with a chance to gain ground in their division since the two teams in front of them will play each other. Toronto's best slugger Jose Bautista has been struggling to start the year and much like with the Angels and Albert Pujols, the Twins don't want to wake the sleeping giant. Baseball America released their first version of a mock draft. Who will the Twins take at number 2? Their pick may surprise you...Standford's Mark Appel will be one of the first pitchers selected in the draft but he doesn't seem to be pitching up to expectations.John Sickles at Minor League Ball put together his supplemental round mock draft where the Twins have two high picks.Chris Parmelee made the roster out of spring training and now he has been sitting on the bench. So what happened to Chris Parmelee?The Twins have seemed to rush some prospects to the majors in recent memory so it might seem like the club is opening their presents too early.It's looking like the Twins will be sellers at the trading deadline and Twins Fan From Afarlooks at the time of players they should target.Along the same lines as above, The Twins Armchair GM writes about the possibility of the Nationals still being interested in Denard Span.If you don't know a lot about Brian Dozier, make sure to read this post by Seth Stohs.A blind man named Reggie Deal is going to 30 parks in 30 days and he will be at Target Field on Friday.Former Twins pitcher Dan Osterbrock had some bad words to say about his former team.Alexi Casilla is near the top of the leaderboard in glove flips so far in 2012.This list of least productive positions in baseball has too many Twins on it.A few weeks ago I posted a picture of Robert Andino and how playing in Baltimore had taken away his smile. Well the Orioles are near the top of the division and this means his smile came back.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xje3IeZgtjI/T6w-Bb6nZLI/AAAAAAAABQ8/d52BODzZcQ4/s400/andinorevived.jpg Scott Diamond had a great first start for the Twins but what can be expected from him going forward?Pitching to contact seems to be the Twins method for selecting pitchers but is it a good thing?A high school baseball team in Arizona forfeited their championship game because the other team had a girl starting in the middle infield.Would Twins fans want to see the Pohlad family sell the team?Jim Pohlad did come out and voice his support of Ron Gardenhire and Terry Ryan this week.My Weekly Rundown Monday: Dozier won't be savior of Twins offensive woesTuesday: Tuesday Night Minor League Round-UpWednesday: Ranking the best debuts by current TwinsThursday: Guerra moving quickly toward Target FieldVideo of the Week: Earlier this week, . I think he would have went for four outs if he had the opportunity. Pretty sweet! Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Deduno_Sam_Bench_US_600.jpg The Twins had one of the worst starting rotations in all baseball last year. In order to remedy the problem, the team has done its best to be aggressive in the open market, recently adding Mike Pelfrey via a two-year $11 million deal. This is the third free agent starter the Twins have added this season as the team has already agreed to terms with Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes. With Kevin Corriea under contract for another year, Minnesota's starting rotation is filling up rather quickly. Minnesota has a handful of players under team control for next season and they have to be wondering what happened. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]Scott Diamond, Sam Deduno, Kyle Gibson, and Vance Worley were all part of the rotation at different points last season and it's looking more likely that a few of these players won't be with the organization when the team leaves Fort Myers. Scott Diamond, LHP After a rookie campaign where Diamond was the best starter for the Twins, his sophomore season was a slump. He walked more batters in fewer innings and struggled to keep the ball in the park. He looked better in his time at Rochester but he is out of minor league options. This could mean the Twins will have to try sneaking him through waivers and there is a chance another club would be interested in his services. Sam Deduno, RHP Deduno surprised a lot of people in his first year, 2012, with the Twins as he tended to give up walks and hits but he found a way to get out of some jams. His second season with the Twins was even better as he lowered his ERA by half a run per game and his WHIP dropped from 1.54 to 1.35 over close to 30 more innings than in his freshman campaign. Like Diamond, Deduno is out of options but it seems Deduno has the inside track for the fifth starter spot. Kyle Gibson, RHP There were high hopes for Gibson entering the season. The former first round pick had looked good in the preceding year's Arizona Fall League and the club was hoping he would make an impact during his rookie season. Gibson struggled throughout his rookie campaign. He still has options remaining so it's looking to be a lock for him to start the year in Rochester. His performance there will dictate when the Twins bring him back to the big leagues. Alex Meyer, RHP Considered by many the top rated pitching prospect in the Twins organization, Meyer will be knocking on the door to the majors next season. He pitched all last season at Double-A and he finished his year with a strong showing in the AFL. There is no need to rush him at this point but it could be hard to find a rotation spot for him unless a rash of injuries hits the guys in front of him. He has options left so the Twins will likely send him to Rochester for the start of the year. Vance Worley, RHP Last season's opening day starter struggled through his first season in a Twins uniform. His WHIP was almost 2.00 and his 7.21 ERA was tough to swallow. When Minnesota traded Ben Revere, Worley was supposed to add some depth to a struggling pitching staff. A year later it is looking more like Worley might not be part of the organization. He's out of options and the Twins will likely put some of the names on this list ahead of him for the fifth starter spot. Put yourself in Terry Ryan and Ron Gardenhire's shoes. Who gets the fifth starter spot? Is the player currently on the roster? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Darin+Mastroianni+Minnesota+Twins.jpg Over the last two seasons, the two men who accounted for most of the at-bats in the Minnesota Twins' leadoff spot were Denard Span and Ben Revere. Both were traded away this offseason, leaving a gaping hole at the top of the order (and in center field but that's a post for a different day). There will be a few different candidates to be the lead-off hitter, depending on who wins the vacancies in center field and in the middle infield. For now, the Twins will turn over the starting to duties in center field to one of three candidates. Joe Benson, Aaron Hicks, and Darin Mastroianni will all get a chance to earn the starting role in spring training. The middle infield situation is even more fluid and also will be determined this spring. Of the center field candidates, Mastroainni has the most big league experience and offers some skills suited for a leadoff role. In only 77 games last season, he managed 21 steals, which ranked third on the team behind Revere and Alexi Casilla. He hit .252/.328/.345 last season with a limited amount of power. The Twins even penciled him into the first spot of the line-up for three different games last season, though he only hit .133/.188/.333 in his 16 plate appearances. Hicks has been used as a lead-off hitter for most of his career in the minor leagues and also has the skill set to be a very good top of the order hitter. He is one of the most patient hitters in the minor leagues, drawing over 75 walks in each of his three full seasons at multiple levels. His on-base percentage is .379 for his professional career, despite posting some lower batting averages in his first few seasons. His speed is also very good as he stole 32 bases last year and he combined for 32 doubles and triples. The Twins are going to need to see quite the performance from Benson to give him a starting job out of spring training. He was injured for most of last season and this caused his on-field performance to take a dive. Benson is still very athletic and he has shown a good ability to get on base when he is healthy. If Benson wins the starting job in center field, it might mean the Twins look to their infield for their leadoff hitter. When looking at the infield candidates, Jamey Carroll played the most for the club in 2012. The 38-year old infielder had a rough start but found his swing through the course of the year. The Twins only used him as a leadoff hitter in one game last year so he might not be the likeliest candidate. He does know how to draw a walk and the Twins could use him at the top of the order until Hicks is ready to debut. The other candidates for the starting jobs in the middle infield are Brian Dozier, Pedro Florimon, and Eduardo Escobar. These men aren't really leadoff hitter material since well... they don't really hit the ball. All three of these players struggled to hit for a decent average last season and they would most likely be suited for spots lower in the batting order. Dozier showed some ability to steal bases with nine steals in 11 attempts but his other numbers were too low to consider him a threat as a lead-off man. If some of these other candidates don't look appealing, the dark horse for the leadoff spot could be the Twins highest paid player. Joe Mauer is the best hitter for average on the Twins and he has led the AL in on-base percentage in multiple seasons. He doesn't have a ton of speed but he is athletic enough that can steal a base on occasion. There really seems like no way manager Ron Gardenhire would put him in the lead-off spot but maybe there is a chance that he moves up to the number two spot. Clearly, Hicks is the Twins leadoff hitter of the future but the future might begin after Opening Day. At this point, it seems most likely for Hicks to start at Triple-A with Mastroianni getting the job on Opening Day. Here is where I would rank the leadoff hitters at this point, and the only reason Mauer is at the bottom is because there seems to be a very little chance that he will be moved from the middle of the order. Leadoff Hitter Rankings: 1. Aaron Hicks 2. Darin Mastroianni 3. Jamey Carroll 4. Joe Mauer If you were putting together the roster for 2013, who would be your leadoff man for Opening Day? How about at the halfway point of the season? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. Click here to view the article

Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first week of Twins baseball has not been perfect by any means but the team has shown signs of life in the last couple of days. Those games were against two very good pitchers from the Angels, Jared Weaver and Dan Haren, so the team might be moving in the right direction. In a rare occurrence on Thursday afternoon, Joe Mauer hit a home run at Target Field for only the second time since the stadium opened in 2010. Besides glimmers of hope, the Twins offense needs to continue on it's upward trejectory if the team wants to find success in 2012.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The two-time defending American League Champion Texas Rangers are coming to town this weekend with a couple of issues themselves. Former Twins closer Joe Nathan has struggled in two of his outings with his new club and both times his team would end up losing the contest. Yu Darvish, the Japanese pitching phenom, is scheduled to pitch on Saturday along with the unveiling of Kent Hrbek's statue outside of Gate 14. The first weekend action of the 2012 season at Target Field should be full of some great games and the Twins hope to get their team moving in the right direction. Another work week has come to an end so I hope you enjoy the following stories that I found from throughout the last week. Baseball is back and it has been great to see my Twitter feed explode with excitement in the last seven days. The Twins aren't off to a perfect start but it is a long season with plenty of baseball left to play. Earlier this week, Seth Stohs had a great podcast with multiple guests including an interview with shortstop Brian Dozier.If you want to find out more about the New Britain Rock Cats, make sure to check out Twins Fan From Afar. He wrote about Alex Wimmers' first start of the year.ESPN's Jim Bowden (an Insider article) thinks it's possible for the Twins to move Justin Morneau at some point this year.A looks into the most infamous Twins jerseys of all time, the "Dairy Queen" red jerseys.John Sickels likes what Brian Dozier has been able to do so far this year at Rochester.Over at Circle the Bases, they examine the possibility of Scott Baker's career being done with the Twins.The Twins saw Peter Bourjos move around the bases at Target Field in under 15 seconds on Wednesday night.Jim Crikket at Knuckleballs wrote a very good piece on how the Twins need to strive for greatness and not just let it be a tradition for the franchise.Over at Twins Daily, they ask the question, "What kind of fan are you?"Twins relief pitcher Jeff Gray only had one-career win before the last two days and now three pitches later he has two more wins.Twins draft pick Hudson Boyd and three of his high school teammates are trying to make it to the big leagues.Shawn Berg over at Twins Target has been counting down his top prospect and he profiled his sixth best player this week.This picture of the Orioles Robert Andino shows how tough a few years in Baltimore can be for a player.http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YlbbPWdbvvU/T4cqwe5CxDI/AAAAAAAABL4/sFfc-Nsh88E/s320/RobertAndinoSmile.jpeg A rare Bryce Harper trading card is listed on eBay for $25,000 and it isn't even autographed by the young star.During the Twins first game of the year a man ran on the field wearing only his underwear and a Batman cap. Now he is banned from Camden Yards for life.Even Babe Ruth's daughter doesn't like the Yankees.Baseball teams are getting a lot more money for the exclusive rights to broadcast their games.Torii Hunter got into a fight with the wall at Target Field... it didn't end well for somebody.My Weekly Rundown: Monday: Rough Opening Weekend has silver liningTuesday: Dozier's hot start is hard to ignoreWednesday: Lost generation of Twins fans brought back in 2002Thursday: Will April showers bring second half flowers?Video of the Week: Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau homered in the same game for the first time since July 2010. The event also took place at Target Field where Mauer came into the game with only one career home run. Morneau's shot was a towering blast deep into the seats. Here is the video evidence of both of those balls leaving the park. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Sabathia_CC_720.jpg The Minnesota Twins have struggled to accumulate starting pitching lately. This stems from a variety of factors. Their drafting strategy, their inability to sign international players and their unwillingness to spend big money on the free agent market are all factors that have gone against this club's ability to acquire big name starters. Here is a look, division by division, at the ace for each pitching staff and the players Minnesota selected ahead of each ace in the draft. At the end of each division there is a summary. For some teams it was hard to select a best pitcher since most of the starters were mediocre.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] CAUTION: This exercise is meant to be a fun. There is obviously a lot that goes into finding a starting pitcher for the top of the rotation. In the past, the Twins have had the opportunity to draft some of the top pitchers in the game. AL East Boston Red Sox Ace: Jon Lester (2002 2nd Round, 57th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Denard Span (20th overall) New York Yankees Ace: CC Sabathia (1998 1st Round, 20th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Ryan Mills (6th overall) Baltimore Orioles Ace: Jason Hammel (2002 10th Round, 284th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Denard Span (20th overall), Jesse Crain (61st overall), Mark Sauls (92nd), Alex Merricks (122nd), Clete Thomas (152nd), Pat Neshek (182nd), Rick Barrett (212th), Adam Lind (242nd), Doug Deeds (272nd) Toronto Blue Jays Ace: R.A. Dickey (1996 1st Round, 18th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Travis Lee (2nd) Tampa Bay Rays Ace: David Price (2007 1st Round, 1st pick) Twins Picks Ahead: none Summary: The Twins even had one of these aces in their system, but Dickey hardly looked like the Cy Young winning player he was in 2012. Skipping over Sabathia for Mills was a tough decision, especially for a club that was trying to rebuild through the early 2000s. A rotation with Sabathia and Santana at the top would have been golden in Minnesota. AL Central Detroit Tigers Ace: Justin Verlander (2004 1st Round, 2nd overall) Twins Picks Ahead: None Kansas City Royals Ace: James Shields (2000 16th Round, 466th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Adam Johnson (2nd), Aaron Heilman (31st), Tagg Bozied (42nd), J.D Durbin (54th), Colby Miller (72nd), Jason Miller (102nd), Edgardo Lebron (132nd), Ronnie Corona (162nd), James Tomlin (192nd), Henry Bonilla (222nd), Ken Holubec (252nd), Kelley Guledge (282nd), Josh Rabe (312th), Jason Kubel (342nd), Shane Boyd (372nd), Cory Agar (402nd), Jeff Lincoln (432nd), Dan DeCola (462nd) Cleveland Indians Ace: Justin Masterson (2006 2nd Round, 71st overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Chris Parmelee (20th), Joe Benson (64th) Chicago White Sox Ace: Chris Sale (2010 1st Round, 13th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: None Summary: To be fair, a lot of team's missed out on Shields when he wasn't taken until the 16th round. For the Twins, there are a lot of names on that list from 2000 that are pretty embarrassing. The team did score a late round find with Kubel, but there were no pitching prospects from that draft for the Twins. From the 2006 draft, it would be nice to have Masterson in the Twins rotation. The jury is still out on what Parmelee and Benson can offer for the future but it seems like the Twins missed one there. AL West Texas Rangers Ace: Yu Darvish (International Signing) Twins Picks Ahead: N/A Oakland Athletics Ace: Tommy Milone (2008 10th Round, 301st overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Aaron Hicks (14th), Carlos Gutierrez (27th), Shooter Hunt (31st), Tyler Ladendorf (60th), Bobby Lanigan (92nd), Daniel Ortiz (126th), Nicholas Romero (156th), Brett Hermsen (186th), Daniel Osterbrock (216th), Jeff Lanning (246th), Michael Gonzalez (276th) Seattle Mariners Ace: Felix Hernandez (International Signing) Twins Picks Ahead: N/A Los Angeles Angels Ace: Jered Weaver (2004 1st Round, 12th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: None Houston Astros Ace: Lucas Harrell (2004 4th Round, 119th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Trevor Plouffe (20th), Glen Perkins (22nd), Kyle Waldrop (25th), Matt Fox (35th), Jay Rainville (39th), Anthony Swarzak (61st), Eddie Morlan (91st) Summary: The two best aces in this division were international signings so the Twins didn't have a wasted draft pick instead of selecting those two. Milone and Harrell aren't exactly front of the rotation guys so it might be fine that the Twins passed on them. There are obviously some misses on the Twins draft board from both of those years because neither Rainville nor Morlan have had an impact on their big league clubs. NL East Atlanta Braves Ace: Tim Hudson (1997 6th Round, 185th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Michael Cuddyer (9th), Matt LeCroy (50th), Michael Restovich (61st), Greg Withelder (93rd), Bob Davies (123rd), Peter Blake (153rd), Nate Melson (183rd) Washington Nationals Ace: Stephen Strasburg (2009 1st Round, 1st overall) Twins Picks Ahead: None Philadelphia Phillies Ace: Cole Hamels (2002 1st Round, 17th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: None New York Mets Ace: Matt Harvey (2010 1st Round, 7th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: None Miami Marlins Ace: Jose Fernandez (2011 1st Round, 14th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: None Summary: Maybe the best division for the Twins as far as not missing out on starters. Many of the aces in this division are high-ranking draft picks from the years when the Twins were near the top of the AL Central. Hudson was a tough miss for the club. Cuddyer turned himself into a solid major league player but many of the other players from that draft have faded into oblivion. It would have been nice to have Hudson around for the club's rebuilding years. NL Central St. Louis Cardinals Ace: Adam Wainwright (2000 1st Round, 29th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Adam Johnson (2nd overall) Cincinnati Reds Ace: Johnny Cueto (International Signing) Twins Picks Ahead: N/A Pittsburgh Pirates Ace: A.J. Burnett (1995 8th Round, 217th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Mark Redman (13th), Jason Bell (43rd), A.J. Hinch (72nd), Jay Hood (100th), Doug Mientkiewicz (128th), Shane Gunderson (156th), Mike Moriarty (184th), Will Rushing (212th) Milwaukee Brewers Ace: Yovani Gallardo (2004 2nd Round, 46th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Trevor Plouffe (20th), Glen Perkins (22nd), Kyle Waldrop (25th), Matt Fox (35th), Jay Rainville (39th) Chicago Cubs Ace: Jeff Samardzija (2006 5th Round, 149th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Chris Parmelee (20th), Joe Benson (64th), Tyler Robertson (96th), Whitney Robbins (119th), Garret Olson (126th) Summary: The Johnson pick at number two is going to haunt the Twins for decades and it sure would be nice to have Wainwright as the ace of the staff. Gallardo has also turned into a decent pitcher for Milwaukee and it would be nice to throw him into the middle of the Twins rotation. The Twins had five of the first 40 picks in '04 and they didn't get a single starter out of that group. Burnett and Samardzija aren't really front of the rotation guys so it's a little easier to see why the team passed on them. NL West San Francisco Giants Ace: Matt Cain (2002 1st Round, 25th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Denard Span (20th) Colorado Rockies Ace: Jhoulys Chacin (International Signing) Twins Picks Ahead: N/A Arizona Diamondbacks Ace: Ian Kennedy (2006 1st Round, 21st overall) Twins Picks Ahead: Chris Parmelee (20th) Los Angeles Dodgers Ace: Clayton Kershaw (2006 1st Round, 7th overall) Twins Picks Ahead: None San Diego Padres Ace: Edinson Volquez (International Signing) Twins Picks Ahead: N/A Summary: In 2002, the Twins passed on quite a few top starters to take Span. His name has been featured on this list multiple times. This past offseason the Twins turned Span into a potential front of the rotation pitcher in Alex Meyer so maybe his selection turned out to be the right decision. It's hard to look at Cain, though, and not want to see him in a Twins uniform; he has already helped the Giants to two World Series rings. So which ace did the Twins miss out on the most? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. Click here to view the article

For fans of the Twins minor league system, there were three of the organizations best pitching prospects all on the mound in one night. This is about as exciting as it gets, folks. Rochester starter Alex Meyer had pitched five straight starts of six innings by allowing two earned runs or less. New Britain starter Jose Berrios was making his fourth start at Double-A and he combined to pitch 13 innings of two-run ball in his last two starts. Lewis Thorpe has been showing signs of improvement even though his season numbers might not show it. One of these pitchers would have one of his best starts of the year. At the same time another pitcher would unfortunately be pulled early with an apparent injury. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 6, Lehigh Valley 1 Box Score For the first time in five starts, Meyer didn't make a quality start but it was still enough to earn his sixth victory of the season. Over five innings, he allowed one run on two hits but he walked a career high five batters. It was his 13th start of allowing one or fewer earned runs this season. Lester Oliveros and Stephen Pryor each pitched two shutout frames to end the game and keep the Red Wings on top. Reynaldo Rodriguez hit his first Triple-A home run, a three-run shot, in the fifth inning. It was part of a five run fifth inning when the Red Wings sent 10 men to the plate. Doug Bernier extended his hit streak to nine games with a single in the fifth inning. With the win, the Wings take a 0.5 game lead in the Wild Card over idle Pawtucket. They also guarantee themselves a 4th straight winning month for the first time since 2006. Before the game, LHP Jason Wheeler was transferred to New Britain. ROCK CATS REVIEW New Britain 1, Trenton 4 Box Score Jose Berrios didn't make it far into this game and unfortunately it was due to an injury. The training staff and coaches came out to the mound to look at him and he was pulled after just 1.2 innings. His velocity dropped on his fastball leading up to him being pulled. Sources have said that shoulder tightness is the initial diagnosis. New Britain's pitching staff had to patch together the rest of the game. Jim Fuller and Matthew Summers pitched 4.1 scoreless frames. They combined to strike out seven. Only one Rock Cat player was able to get a hit. Aaron Hicks went 2-for-4 with a triple and a run scored. It was his first triple since being demoted to New Britain. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 3, Clearwater 5 Box Score The Miracle were left without any extra-base hits and the team was a woeful 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Byron Buxton went 0-for-5 and struck out three times. Max Kepler reached base three times and Levi Michael went 2-for-4. Stuart Turner knocked in a couple of runs. The Miracle loaded the bases in the ninth inning but they couldn't plate a run. Steven Gruver was forced to make a spot start for the Miracle. He lasted three innings and was charged for two earned runs. After pitching two scoreless innings, Alex Muren allowed a couple of runs to score in the sixth as Clearwater took the lead for good. It was the fourth loss in the last six games for the Miracle. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 6, Burlington 2 Box Score Lewis Thorpe had his strikeout mojo working for the Kernels. He struck out a season-high 10 batters over 5.2 frames for his second victory. He surrendered two runs on four hits while walking one batter. The bullpen had to do some work after Thorpe left with runners on the corners. Chris Mazza got out of the jam and limited the Bees to one hit. Jake Reed was perfect over the last two innings for his first save. Michael Quesada notched a couple of RBI in the fourth while Bryan Haar and Alex Swim each scored two runs in the game. Haar collected his 18th double of the season and Swim added his sixth two-bagger. Mitch Garver went 2-for-4 and stole his sixth base of the year. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 2, Greeneville 4 Box Score The E-Twins struggled to find their offensive stroke in this one. The team combined to go 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and the team left five on base. Dutch Deol had the only extra-base hit of the game a double that plated two runs. It was his third double of the year. Nick Gordon picked up a single to stretch his hitting streak to three games. Felix Jorge continued his stretch of strong starts since being send from Cedar Rapids to Elizabethton. In this contest, he went six innings and scattered four hits. He struck out four, walked one, and saw his ERA drop to 1.93 over seven starts in the Appalachian League. Keaton Steele was charged with the loss after he gave up two runs, one earned, in the ninth inning GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Twins 6, GCL Rays 7 (7 Innings) Box Score The GCL Twins got within one run in two different innings in the first game of the double header but they weren't able to overcome the five run second inning by the Rays. Josh Burris took the loss after allowing four earned runs in a third of an inning. After the first three pitchers lasted less than an inning, Josh Guyer threw the last 4.1 innings by allowing two runs on three hits. It would turn out to be quite the day for Amaurys Minier. In this game, he slugged a grand slam with two outs in the third to bring the Twins within a run. It was the only extra-base hit for the team. Rainis Silva and Joel Polanco each added two hits and Silva had an RBI. GCL Twins 4, GCL Rays 2 (7 Innings) Box Score Two runs in each of the first two innings were enough to put the GCL Twins on top in this one. Amaurys Minier knocked a two-run bomb to get the scoring started in the first inning. It was his fourth home run this season and his second of the day. In the second inning after some wild pitching by the Rays, Ruar Verkerk collected two RBI on a single passed the first baseman. Alex Tapia continued his winning ways tossing six innings and limiting the Rays to two runs on three hits. It was his fourth consecutive victory to start the season and it was his first time pitching at least six frames. Trevor Hildenberger allowed two base runners in the ninth but neither would score and he earned his fifth save. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Lewis Thorpe, Cedar Rapids Kernels Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Amaurys Minier, GCL Twins WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Lehigh Valley @ Rochester (10:05am CST) – Trevor May (Listen) New Britain @ Trenton (11:05am CST) – TBD (Listen) Clearwater @ Ft. Myers (6:05am CST) – Tim Shibuya (Listen) Burlington @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 CST) - Ryan Eades (Listen) Greeneville @ Elizabethton (6:00 CST) - Derrick Penilla GCL Rays @ GCL Twins (11:00am CST) – TBD

Download attachment: ByronBuxtonTwins.jpg World came out on Tuesday morning that Byron Buxton had been named by Baseball America as the top prospect in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Last year's first round pick for the Twins didn't spend the entire season in the GCL but it was long enough to make his mark on the league. In 27 games for the GCL Twins, Buxton hit .216/.324/.466 with 11 extra-base hits including four home runs. He spent the rest of the season with the Elizabethton Twins as they made their march to an Appalachian League Championship. It had to be a memorable year for Buxton as he graduated high school, became the second pick in the MLB Draft, and started his professional baseball career. Terry Ryan was asked about Buxton in an interview after Baseball America announced their pick for outstanding prospect in the GCL. He had nothing but glowing remarks for Buxton. One of the quotes included, "He's a great teammate, he cares, he tries to pay attention to detail-- all those things you can't scout." It sounds like the Twins are happy with the make-up of their blooming prospect but what about the rest of his game? "The only thing I was worried about was how much power he had. He's got power. He can hit the ball a long way," Ryan said later in the interview. As an 18-year old, Buxton had five home runs and 10 doubles across both levels he played at with the Twins organization. When Buxton was in the Twin Cities to finalize his deal with the club, he got the opportunity to take batting practice at Target Field. There were reports of him putting at least one or two balls into the bullpen in deep center field so his power seems to be legit. As a teenager, he is tall and lanky so there is room for him to continue to grow into his frame in the coming years. This should only add more power to an already powerful swing. One of the more interesting quotes in the article stated that Buxton is the faster player in the Twins system "by far," and he is faster than the current speedy outfielder for the Twins, Ben Revere. Buxton showed some of his speed in the GCL by stealing four bases in seven chances, which isn't the greatest steal percentage in the world. When he shifted to the Appalachian League, he racked up seven steals and he was never thrown out in any of those opportunities. The art of the steal can be something a player develops in the minor leagues. Fans of the Twins have been spoiled with Revere's speed in the last two seasons and it's fun to imagine Buxton being a faster version of Revere with plenty of more pop in his bat. Cincinnati Reds prospect Billy Hamilton set the minor league stolen base record this season by swiping 155 bases between two different levels. The thoughts of Buxton trying to break this record in the future might not be at the top of the wish list for fans of the Twins. Hamilton is more of a light-hitting middle infielder so he doesn't hit for a lot of power. This gives him the opportunity to steal more bases because he is on first a lot of the time when he gets on base. In his four seasons in the minors, Hamilton has seven home runs and Buxton already has five in his first season. It's nice for Buxton to have the speed but hopefully it will translate into turning doubles into triples over stealing second base. The outfield of the future for the Twins could be a conglomerate of some very talented and speedy defensive players. Ben Revere is still under team control for multiple seasons so he might have to be the player to mentor Buxton into the big leagues. Prospects Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia are going to be knocking on the door to the big leagues in 2013 and there's hope they can stay in the team's long-term plans. An outfield with Revere, Hicks, and Buxton manning all three positions might be one of the best defensive line-ups in the game and their speed on the bases could be exciting to watch. These happy thoughts of top prospects turning into wonderful major league players are still a couple of years away. Until then, we will have to be happy with facing the Yankees and Tigers and impacting the postseason race. Click here to view the article

Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first two games of the season have been complete and I can honestly say I have yet to watch a single pitch. One of the problems was that both of the contests were not on any major channel and the other issues was the games were being played very early in the morning. I still don't know how I feel about the first two games of the season being played in Japan. It is great to spread the game to international markets but I love when all of the games are being played in the first couple days and there is one game after another on ever ESPN station. With the way it is set up now, the A's and the Mariners have already played two of their games and it seems to take a little something away from the Opening Day that will take place in the US next week. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The great thing is this is the last edition of Friday Links-N-Thinks before the Twins have their own Opening Day contest in Baltimore. In Fort Myers, the roster is starting to come together and the team looks close to being ready to make a push in the AL Central. Justin Morneau started to swing a good bat this week with multiple home runs. Joe Mauer has been hitting well for most of the spring and he seems ready to get back to his injury-free self. Francisco Liriano has put together some impressive outings and he could be poised to make a splash in the rotation for the Twins. Overall, it is the most wonderful time of the year as the wait for the beginning of the 2012 season is almost over. Here are a variety of stories from the last week that I enjoyed with a little humor splashed in for some fun. Enjoy the links and have a fantastic last weekend without Twins baseball. For those lucky enough to score ticket to the Twins home opener, the schedule of events for the day was released by the club. The 2002 Twins team will be honored and who doesn't want to see Denny Hocking throw out a first pitch.Betsy over at For Love of the Game continued her series of posts relating the Twins roster decisions to the popular Hunger Games novels. Not everyone will survive until the end but may the odds be ever in your favor.It is getting closer to the time for Twins fan Lindsay Guentzel to head to the MLB Fan Cave for the start of the regular season. Over at Knuckleballs Blog they posted a video update of her progress.The new website Twins Daily has been doing very well in their first five week of existence.David Bromberg and Anthony Slama look to bounce back after each had a rough 2011. Seth Stohs thinks both could work their way back on the big league roster in 2012.The ESPN Sweetspot blog has done multiple predictions for the AL this week and the Twins got a couple nods in some categories. The Cy Young votes are here and the Rookie of the Year vote could surprise you.Do you have the desire to see every uniform change that will be taking place across baseball this year? I am excited for the Twins to wear their Minneapolis Millers uniforms.http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vboqEjHrzFs/T3Ur7cOcuFI/AAAAAAAABJ4/WnO59krIv78/s320/WillieMaysMinneapolisMillers.jpg Former Twin R.A. Dickey has made quite the name for himself in the Big Apple and this piece does a good job of showing who he is as a man.Carl Pavano is in the middle of a very weird extortion plot. Some people will do anything for a navy Range Rover with tan leather.Twins Fan from Afar is fine with the news that that Justin Morneau will be DHing.I read this headline and thought the old Ruben Sierra was still attempting to play with an MLB club.There was quite the Twitter war earlier this week between the local media and the rest of us so called "bloggers." John Bonnes wrote some of his thoughts on the controversy.Do you ever go to eBay and try and find cheap Twins stuff to purchase?Minor League Ball has been running a series of posts on the top players who are under 25 years old. John Sickels reminds Twins fans why we miss Wilson Ramos.Page 2 at ESPN.com did an interview with Chris Iles, the corporate communications manager for the Twins, to discuss their use of social media during games.Don Mattingly called Ozzie Guillen a bad name.It looked like Cristian Guzman could be back in the AL Central at some point during the upcoming season. The Indians released him but maybe now he can show up and throw out a first pitch with Denny Hocking.My Weekly Rundown Monday: Revere becomes outfield's odd man outTuesday: Could Capps perform better than Nathan in '12?Wednesday: Gibson could be the 2013 Opening Day starterThursday: Replacements could fill back end of the rotationVideo of the Week: In the time Jim Thome spent in Minnesota, he was never asked to step on the field as a fielder and there was no reason for him to do this with the AL having the DH. Time have changed for Mr. Thome as he signed a free agent contract with the Phillies in the offseason. Now he is going to be forced to play at first base from time to time in order to get himself into the line-up. Here is the video proof that he can still make a tough play at first base. It wasn't the most graceful thing in the world but he got the job done. Click here to view the article

As part of the Twins Daily preseason preview, I took an in-depth look at Chris Parmelee and Trevor Plouffe as they headed into the 2013 season. Going into the season, both former first round draft picks figured to get extended playing time. The hope for Twins fans was for each of these players to show some of the potential he had shown while playing at the Triple-A level. Download attachment: Plouffe_Parmelee_Passing_US_720.jpg Plouffe showed some impressive power in 2012 with 24 home runs and 19 doubles. He had a career high .756 OPS and it looked like the Twins might have found someone to be an offensive threat in the second half of the line-up. At the beginning of 2012, there was talk of him moving into the outfield but he found a new home at third base. There was hope of improvement from Plouffe as the team headed to Florida for spring training. Minnesota wanted to bring in some competition for Plouffe at third base during spring training but this never happened. Plouffe was penciled in as the starting third baseman and he started 118 games there. Over the course of the season, his batting average rose to the point where he hit .330/.369/.417 in September. He posted a positive defensive WAR for the first time in his career but his other defensive numbers were lacking. It's hard to know what role Plouffe will have going forward. Stud prospect Miguel Sano will enter spring training with a chance to take over the starting third base job. This could mean Plouffe spending more time in the outfield or keeping Sano's spot warm while he gets some seasoning at Triple-A. Injuries impacted different parts of his 2013 season but Plouffe is surely going to feel the heat from Sano entering 2014. For Parmelee, there were high expectations after his strong September call-up in 2011. Justin Morneau was a giant question mark at first base and the Twins fan base thought Parmelee could take over the role of starting first baseman. In 2012, he received sporadic big league playing time and this might have been the main reason for his struggles. Minnesota was going to find more at-bats for him in 2013 and this meant a move to the outfield. The power Parmelee showed in Triple-A and in his September call-up has continued to be absent. His OPS dropped this season and he had the same OPS+ as in 2012. Left-handed pitchers owned Parmelee by holding him to .172/.250/.276 in 58 at-bats. Even his time at Triple-A was unimpressive (.231/.318/.370) following a year where he was a force in the minor leagues. If the Twins are going to have to find playing time for Joe Mauer at a position besides catcher, it will likely be first base. This takes at-bats away from Parmelee and the outfield might start to fill-up with more viable options. Josh Willingham, Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Arcia, and Ryan Doumit all need playing time and this could leave Parmelee without regular at-bats. It's looking more and more like Parmelee will be the odd man out. The Twins need their first round draft picks to make it at the big league level. As I said in the article from the beginning of the year, "It takes a lot to become a regular on a major league ball club." The hope was for Parmelee and Plouffe to be part of the long-term solution in Minnesota. At this point, that is starting to look more like a dream than a reality. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: MinnesotaTwinsAmerica.jpg It's Election Day across our great country and this means people should be getting out and casting their votes. Be informed about the choices you are making and help to decide the future of our country. One of the best parts about today is there won't be any more political ads on TV or the radio. Thank the heavens. If you are reading this post, it doesn't matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat because you are most likely a fan of the Twins. Going to watch a baseball game and going to the polls to vote are two of the most American things someone can do. Only one of those All-American tasks can be accomplished today but that doesn't mean there aren't other decisions the Twins are weighing this offseason.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Every front office has to look at their roster as a ballot and put their confidence behind a group of players. Luckily, most of the terms won't be for four years or more but some decisions still need to be made. Here are some of the areas the front office will be making decisions on before the start of next year. There are some easy votes and some tough votes but all of these decisions will impact the Twins future. 2013 Minnesota Twins Ballot Catcher: The incumbent is leading in the polls but could another candidate sneak in and steal this election. Mauer had a bounce back year but Doumit had one of the best seasons of his career. Butera has been around the team for multiple seasons but he doesn't have much of a shot as a third party candidate. Joe Mauer: The IncumbentRyan Doumit: The ChallengerDrew Butera: The Third Party Candidate_________________________ Write-In Candidate First baseman: Morneau showed he was over most of his concussion problems during the last campaign. He is aging and some other candidates could sneak in and take this spot. Parmelee deserves a chance to start and first base might be his best spot. There is a chance for Morneau to get elected to start for another team in the form of a trade. Justin Morneau: The IncumbentChris Parmelee: The ChallengerJoe Mauer: The Other Challenger_________________________ Write-In Candidate Second baseman: The middle infield could be a wide open race to the finish. Alexi Casilla removed himself from contention when the Orioles claimed him in the last week. This still leaves multiple players and no clear leader as of Election Day. Jamey CarrollBrian DozierEduardo Escobar_________________________ Write-In Candidate Third baseman: For the fans, Plouffe might be the clear choice for this spot. The front office contends that they will bring in challengers to push Plouffe. Carroll showed his ability to handle multiple infield positions last year and he could get elected to start at third base. Fans have talked about Mauer making a move to this position and it could happen in this election. Trevor Plouffe: The IncumbentJamey CarrollJoe Mauer_________________________ Write-In Candidate Shortstop: Much like the election at second base, there are plenty of candidates for this role but the polls continue to be tight. Dozier didn't do too well on the campaign trail in the last year. Florimon showed some great skills on the defensive side of the ball. Will this be enough to give him the election? Pedro FlorimonBrian DozierJamey Carroll_________________________ Write-In Candidate Outfield: For this office, there must be THREE names voted for in order for your ballot to be counted. There seem to be plenty of options in the outfield for the Twins and not all of these players might make it to Opening Day. Who are the best candidates to lead the team into the future? Denard SpanJosh WillinghamBen RevereChris ParmeleeRyan DoumitAaron HicksOswaldo Arcia_________________________ Write-In Candidate _________________________ Write-In Candidate Designated Hitter: With so many tight battles in the other elections, the DH battle might be open for another candidate to sneak into the line-up. Ryan DoumitJustin MorneauJoe MauerJosh WillinghamChris Parmelee_________________________ Write-In Candidate So what would your ballot look like in this election? Who did you elect to start for the Twins in 2013? Leave a COMMENT and tell the world how you voted today (well at least for this election). Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Nick+Punto+Los+Angeles+Dodgers.jpg Word came out on Thursday that the Los Angeles Dodgers were looking to deal away Nick Punto. Shortly after this happened, the Twitter universe exploded across Twins Territory with thoughts of the former infielder returning to Minnesota. The Twins might need to add some depth at their middle infield positions and there has been plenty of talk about the club bringing in someone to push Trevor Plouffe for the starting job at third base. Punto could be the man to do both of these jobs. Since he left the Twins following the 2010 campaign, he has made stops in St. Louis, Boston, and Los Angeles. He won the World Series with the Cardinals back in 2011 and he was part of the blockbuster trade last season between the Red Sox and the Dodgers. It seems that the Dodgers and their bloated payroll are trying to dump the scrappy infielder and the Twins could be a possible trade partner. What could Punto add to the middle infield? Currently, the Twins have a quartet of players vying for the starting middle infield jobs in 2012. Pedro Florimon, Jamey Carroll, Brian Dozier, and Eduardo Escobar are in the mix at second base and shortstop. None of these names really stands out as a front-runner and Punto's history with the club could give him the leg up in the competition. He has experience at basically every infield position and this could make him a more intriguing utility man than Escobar. The thought of having Punto and Carroll at the top of the Twins line-up might be hard to swallow for some Twins fans but both of these players would be free agents after 2013. Punto is only due $1.5 million next season and the Twins have given him a lot more money than that to be mediocre for the club. Is Punto the man to push Plouffe at third? Terry Ryan has talked all offseason about bringing in someone to challenge Trevor Plouffe for the starting job at third base. One of the most rumored names on the free agent market had been Jack Hannahan, a native of St. Paul. Unfortunately for the Twins, Hannahan just finalized a two-year deal for $2 million with the Reds. This took one name off of the Twins' list and it could mean that the team has more interest in Punto. Punto played the most games of his career at third base for the Twins back in 2007. Last year, he made 31 appearances at third for the Red Sox and the Dodgers. His ability to make some spectacular defensive plays was one of his calling cards during his time with Minnesota. At age 35, it's easy to imagine that Punto might have lost a step or two. This could take away from some of his value as a defender. What if Punto is on the decline? In recent years, Punto has struggled to stay healthy and on the playing field. He has averaged 79 games played since 2010. That followed a stretch of five seasons where he averaged over 124 games played. There can be plenty of bumps and bruises that will stick with a player longer in his 30s than in his 20s. All of those things seem to be adding up for Punto to make him a frequent visitor to the disabled list. Going into last season, Punto was a career .249/.325/.327 hitter but those numbers took a dive in 2012. He ended the season hitting .219/.321/.281 with only eight extra-base hits to his name. Those were his lowest totals since 2003 when he played in 64 games for the Phillies. Obviously there is some decline with players as they age but it might be too late for Punto to have a resurgent year. The Twins have plenty of Punto-type players on the roster so it might be a fools errand to bring him back for a return trip with the Twins. That being said, Ron Gardenhire loved him some Nicky Punto when he was here. If Gardenhire is in his last season as Twins manager, maybe the club will wrap him up a Punto present for the holidays. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: diamond.jpg Something isn't right with Scott Diamond. The man who was supposed to be a calming force in the Twins starting rotation has become a punching bag for opponents. He hasn't won a game since June 20th when he gave up four runs in a little over five innings. A sophomore slump has hit Diamond hard and it's tough to know what the Twins can do about it. Since June 9th, Diamond has struggled mightily on mound.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] In his eight starts since, he has failed to make it into the fifth inning in four of them, including the last three. He's given up 30 earned runs in 40 innings for a robust 6.75 ERA. Overall, opponents are hitting .312/.369/.547 against him and he has given up more than a home run per game in his last eight starts. These numbers are tough to look at but it was easy to predict there would be some struggles. There were signs of something wrong at the end of last season. Diamond was terrific in the first half, posting a 7-3 record with a 2.62 ERA with a 1.18 WHIP. There was some talk of Diamond making the All-Star team because of his strong pitching performance. The second half didn't go so smoothly. His record dropped to 5-6 and his ERA expanded to 4.31 while his WHIP went up to 1.30. The end of his rookie season couldn't arrive fast enough. Originally posted at http://www.NoDakTwinsFan.com One interesting statistic to look at for Diamond is his batting average on balls in play (BABIP). If you aren't familiar with this statistic, here is a brief introduction lesson. BABIP tells us how many hits a pitcher is giving up when the ball is put in play. In this case, "put in play" means the ball stays fair and in the ballpark, rather than the play resulting in a walk, home run, hit by pitch or error. Last season, opponents had a .292 BABIP versus Diamond. This ranked twentieth best in the American League. So far this season, Diamond's BABIP has risen to .319, the 43rd best mark in the AL. The only qualified AL pitchers with a worse BABIP are Bud Norris, Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander, and Joe Blanton. Most fans might think it's good for a pitcher to be on the same leaderboard as Verlander but that's not the case here, as more of the balls hit off Diamond are falling for hits. Another area where Diamond has struggled has been his ability to limit damage when runners get on base. In 2012, Diamond was able to leave runners on base at a 73.3% mark. This ranked him 16th among AL starting pitchers and ahead of players like CC Sabathia, Yu Darvish, and Matt Moore. So far in 2013, Diamond has the third-worst LOB% in the AL at 67.4. The only pitchers with a worse mark are Jerome Williams and Rick Porcello. Let's take a closer look at the last two starts from Diamond and try to find where some of his struggles may have originated. Take a look at the strike zone plot map from Diamond's start on Sunday versus Cleveland. As you can see, there are a lot of pitches in the zone and a lot of balls left up. This looks a lot different compared to his previous start in New York. Against the Yankees, Diamond seemed to have a different game plan or he was continuing to struggle with his control. Most of his pitches were well out of the zone and it's hard to believe he got anyone out with this kind of control. He might have been trying to avoid batters hitting it into the short porch at Yankee Stadium but this might also show why he was able to last only 3.1 innings. The Twins need to do something with Diamond. A trip to Rochester might be in order to get his head and his control back where they need to be. Fellow Canadian left-hander Andrew Albers also started on Sunday for the Rochester Red Wings. It makes sense to flip-flop these two men for their next few starts. Albers has a 10-4 record on the season and a 2.97 ERA. Diamond needs to get fixed and this may be the right time for him to be demoted. Click here to view the article