big dog

KC getting down tonight through 2- 18 pitches. He's a gamer. He gets after it!

Happy to see KC "Get Down Tonight" get through the first. Tough four hitters- 3 outs on 11 pitches. Twins patience in the first was good, too, even if so far unrewarded.

For kicks, check out your 1981 Minnesota Twins: Starting lineup and OPS+, according to Baseball-reference C, Sal Butera, 76 1b, Danny Goodwin, 74 2b, Rob Wilfong, 81 SS, Roy Smalley, 130 (but injured a lot of the year) 3b, John Castino, 95 LF, Gary Ward, 93 CF, Mickey Hatcher, 78 (probably didn't make up for it with his defense, either) RF, Dave Engle, 97 DH, Glenn Adams, 57 Other players getting over 100 ABs Hosken Powell, 72 Pete Mackanin, 63 Ron Jackson, 93 Butch Wynegar, 71 Rick Sofield, 23 Sofield was complaining about playing time and said there were other teams that wanted him. The manager (Johnny Goryl) said that the only teams that wanted him were the Army, Navy, and Marines. The pitching wasn't bad, compared to the hitting. Starting pitchers were Albert Williams, Pete Redfern, Fernando Arroyo, Jerry Koosman, Roger Erickson, and Brad Havens. All had ERA+ between 95 and 111. WHIP ranged from 1.28 to 1.41. Best pitcher was Havens, with an ERA of 3.58 and a WHIP of 1.28. Relievers? Doug Corbett, ERA+ of 155. John Verhoeven was second at 100, and was out of the league the next year. Hrbek, Gaetti, and Laudner all had cups of coffee late in the year. I don't think anyone expected a lot from Gaetti and Laudner. There was hope...but not much. 1981 Minnesota Twins Batting, Pitching, & Fielding Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com The only players with significant ABs in 1981 who were there in 1982 were Castino and Ward, with Hatcher, Engle, and Butera seeing large dropoffs in playing time. Wynegar and Smalley were both traded early in the year. Havens and Williams returned as starters, joined by Jack O'Connor. Erickson, Corbett, Arroyo and Redfern played lesser roles. Nearly a complete turnover of the roster, richly deserved.

Agreed, even though the record is likely to be bad there is still a lot of potential to watch for. When the Twins were bad with no chance of becoming better soon...those days were ugly.

Dan Gladden just said on the broadcast that the team tried to outright him to AAA, and he was claimed on waivers by the Blue Jays. It was done to create a spot for Ramirez.

De Aza replaced Rios for a while in 2011 and played really well. He struggled quite a bit last year playing more or less full time (524 ABs, .760 OPS after a .920 OPS in 152 ABs in 2011). Before that he'd only had a few short stints in the majors, with the Marlins and the White Sox. This year might reveal which is the real version. He's 29 so I think the .760 is going to be closer to the real version than the .920. Konerko's been healthy enough to stay off the DL the last 3 years, other than I believe one 7-day DL late last year. I'm thinking Morneau's numbers might have been a tad better than they were if he had gotten the same run of health. Anyway, to each his own and I'll tell you in October if I was right or wrong.

Konerko, 2010: .312/.393/.584/.977 Konerko, 2011: .300/.388/.517/.906 Konerko, 2012: .298/.372/.486/.857 I think dropping 120 points of OPS between ages 34 and 36 should make you cautious about what might happen at age 37.

The most likely thing to me, a Twins fan stuck in Chicago, is that Konerko falls apart physically. He's really been a horse and gutted a lot of things out, but I think his decline will be steep and quick. Ignoring age I'd probably put him second on the list as well, but that's an awfully big thing to ignore at 37. I think Torii's window is closing pretty quickly as well, but he may be able to hang in there a while. I hope Parmalee ends up being the class of the bunch, at least offensively, and it seems at least plausible. It will depend in part on which version of Rios shows up this year.

Dozier is also almost two years older, so it's time to see if he's going to make it. It's not too hard to imagine a middle infield of Carroll and Escobar by mid-season, but hopefully everybody plays reasonably well and people get playing time because they deserve it rather than because the other players can't handle it.