Hosken Bombo Disco

Nice to see Gibson get a 95, even if it's not his out pitch. Some of those Perkins fastballs seem a little off, even for spring training. I think of him as a 94-96 guy. I wonder what his readings were last march at this time or if he's purposefully doing something a little different in this last appearance.

Polling firms collect all sorts of data on voters, age, sex, race, where you live, income, education, registered, and so on.

No it didn't come across very well. Sorry

I meant it as a demographic, nothing else.

As if we needed another variable...

I agree Bernie's chances are zero to none, but it's pretty simplistic to claim that his only supporters are young dewy-eyed college kids. If the voting had broken differently (a lot differently) and Bernie had won the nomination, I believe most Democrats would have backed him. I don't know the guy well enough to know if the free college bit is a bargaining chip or if he would actually go to the mat for it. Either way I'm glad to have him in the discussion for as long as possible. People need to hear new things. He's not really saying anything outrageous. People conveniently forget that after the 2008 crash, Alan Greenspan conceded that a nationalization of banks might be necessary. That's a far, far more socialist position than free college.

and that's all the farther you needed to go with that remark, because those folks already have their candidate, and it sure as hell isn't Bernie Sanders.

Is he winning with the educated?

"But something is going to have to differentiate the eventual “winners” of the final bullpen spots. For them, results are going to matter, especially over the next couple of weeks." I agree, fair or not, it's perfectly natural to look at stat lines to differentiate similar players fighting for the same spot. There just isn't enough time in spring training to observe guys multiple times apiece under various game situations.

I would agree with Ted on Kintzler but also want to see Meyer do something, like a 3 strikeout inning, if only for his confidence since I don't believe he's going to get a 25-man roster spot right away.

I would characterize the 2009 season as a spike in home runs, rather than calling everything after it a decline. True, Mauer is not the guy he was. I was on that boat in 2006. Mauer has had his health issues but my bigger complain is not Mauer but would be how the team is using him (batting him 3rd despite low OPS, etc.).

But, you do hate disease though, right?

The Buxton-in-CF experiment was never going to work.

Trout is a better player than Harper but that doesn't mean Harper wasn't a prodigy, and they are both among the top few hitters in the game.

Young, college age kids with leftist ideals do have a history of shouting down speakers they don't agree with, and then being arrested and released. That does not make these people "the Left." Nope. Sorry. Not even close.

I'm not sure how if we refuse to talk about Trump that he will somehow go away. Not disagreeing with you, just not sure how that works at this point, or if it ever would have worked.

But would you want him as a teammate?

You may be right. Protesters may actually be aiding Trump's cause, whatever it is. However I wonder if any individual protester who acts out knows exactly what he's getting into. In other words, "I know I'm going to be arrested, but I'm jumping this barrier anyway." It's the Trump folks who probably feel they need not be held accountable for their own violence. God I can't believe we are even talking about this.

I think this goes back to the question of being heard. Perhaps the protesters aren't acting perfectly rationally but they probably feel they do not have a voice and thus have a calculation to make. The BLM movement here has struggled with the same questions. They ask if they will get noticed by standing on a street corner in north Minneapolis with sign boards? Or get noticed by sitting on the interstate and blocking traffic? Or will they get noticed by disrupting the Twin Cities Marathon? I think fortunately BLM did not follow through with that last one. Certainly Trump's violent speech and incitement came prior to the protesters' reaction to that speech.

Some random, small sample thoughts on the Twins performance, based mostly on what the box scores are telling us, as we approach the halfway point of spring training. All the normal caveats about small sample, quality of opponents, and then some. I feel putting it in writing here will let me see how they hold up as spring training ends and we get going into the regular season. _______ The bullpen. The three back end guys are Perkins, Jepsen and May. Good on Molly to give May a start today, though. I’d like to see May be a starter again in future seasons, but for this year, he looks ticketed for the 'pen. Add to those three Fien and Abad. That makes five relievers who look to start the season, and of those five, only Fien has allowed an earned run in relief. That’s not bad. Spring training is not necessarily a meaning-making exercise, but you'd rather be doing good than bad. Additionally, Nick Burdi and J. T. Chargois, our future bullpen anchors, have each thrown 3 scoreless innings. The future might be here early, let's hope. A lot of people were critical of the inaction this winter (not me) but either way, we need guys who can get outs. Forcing the Twins hand is the fact that guys like Aaron Thompson and Michael Tonkin are struggling to pitch any scoreless innings. Disappointing. (Granted Thompson is no longer on the 40-man.) And throw Meyer in with them. Meyer has faced 8 batters, struck out 3, walked 3, and the other batters 2 had line drive base hits. No batter he has faced has been retired in the field. Two of those other batters were thrown out stealing. Go figure. Nor have other guys like Dean, Reed and Melotakis haven’t put their names in the headlines yet. It’s still early, however. Then shift to J. R. Graham and Ryan Pressly. Combined, they have pitched 7 scoreless innings. Both are guys that Ryan picked up in the Rule 5 draft and right now, from 35,000 feet, I’d give Pressly a strong chance to make the Opening Day roster. Zack Jones, who Ryan lost to the Brewers in the Rule 5 draft this winter, blew out his shoulder prior to training camp, hasn't resumed throwing yet. Longshots O’Rourke and Kintzler have also pitched 3 scoreless innings apiece. Of those two, give the edge to O’Rourke because he’s awesome on the 40 man. Prediction: either Burdi or Chargois forces the Twins hand on a promotion right away in April, or even breaking from camp. I’d prefer the latter. Now let me talk about our new designated hitter. I’m not exactly sure how his name is styled, if it should read Park Byung-ho, or Byung Ho Park, or even Byung-ho Pak, without the R. I’d like to get it right, because he’s going to be good. After a forgetful first game (three strikeouts), he has batted 8-19 with 3 homers. Let’s roll the dice; he is ready. Arcia, Vargas and Santana have not hit yet, but that could change. Arcia is playing out of position in left field, Santana is playing several positions that he will struggle at in the majors, and Vargas in my opinion plays first base at least as well as Mauer does, but I’d much rather have Mauer for another year than Vargas. Vargas just hasn’t hit consistently since his first call up. Despite Mauer’s struggles, I still usually feel confident when he comes to the plate. I can’t say that about Vargas. Fortunately Vargas still has an option year and can play in Rochester again until needed. As has also been pointed out, Carlos Quentin is receiving the most playing time of the non roster invitees, by far. He’s also playing all over the field. He hasn’t been a full time player in years—he was even retired last season. The Twins wouldn’t ask him to play full time, but with Park showing he’s ready to DH there’s just no spot for Quentin, unless the Twins want to cut Santana or Arcia, which in my mind would be shortsighted for the limited value Quentin might provide. No doubt Quentin has shown in the past that he can mash, and hopefully he will accept some time in AAA and let the Twins see how things play out. Buxton figures to make the team, but is striking out a lot. I’m not too worried so long as the Twins can keep him in good spirits and let the development happen as it's meant to for him. And finally, Miguel Sano. Have you ever seen him hit? When people in sports bars hold up their phones to film Sano at bats on the television, that’s pretty special. Most of us expect him to struggle some in right field, and he will. But he got an outfield assist recently; expect him to get even more outfield assists after the season starts, as opposing base runners test his instincts out there. Speaking of outfield assists, don’t try to run on Rosario out in left. Or rather, please do try to run on Rosario.

I'm willing to buy the old baseball wisdom that most veteran pitchers don't get it ramped up until some way through spring training or the season starts. The exception being young college kids like Burdi already throwing upper 90s.

Ask Ryan if he is truly concerned about players striking out so much. If he is, ask why, and then ask what he intends to do about.

LENIII on the radio said that Park's three homers have been come against 91, 92, and 94 mph heaters.

Who is Thompson, and haven't we seen enough of him to make a decision.* * don't answer that

I also suspect they will, but hope they don't.