Andrew Bryz-Gornia

Off-topic from the main article, but related to your anecdote... I work for Inside Edge part-time and one of the things we do is rate how hard a ball was hit. After a Dozier HR, one of my coworkers said that none of his HR are well-hit. I thought my coworker was being serious because I too feel that most of Dozier's home runs are short, towering fly balls. It turned out the guy actually lost an office-wide Beat the Streak due to Dozier and has disliked him ever since, haha.

For the record, it's not our decision to call it Twinkie Town, that came from SB Nation/Vox Media. I guarantee that us TT writers do not think it's clever or cute.

1) I know the TD crew tried branching out with Wild, Vikings, and Timberwolves sites, but those didn't generate as much traffic. I bet you meant branching further into the baseball world, though. 2) I can't speak for Puckett's Pond, but I know that TT gained its search clout thanks to being part of Vox Media. The school I teach at has had the same problem, it's a private school that as recently as last year appeared on the ~10th page of results when you searched "private schools Minnesota," and our HR department shared that they had to directly work with Google (i.e. probably pay money) to get our school moved up to the 2nd or 3rd page.

Hey everyone, For those of you that don't know me, I write for Twinkie Town, a member of SB Nation and Vox Media. Twins Daily launched shortly after I joined Twinkie Town, and I attempted to write on both websites at the same time. I've expressed this to John in person, but my biggest issue was when I'd write a blog post that took a lot of time and effort and I was proud of my final result, yet it never saw the TD front page. It was disheartening, and after having that happen a couple times, I quit writing on TD because I knew all of my TT writing was guaranteed to be put on the front page. (For the record, I am not paid at TT so this was not a financial decision.) I still lurk on TD from time to time, reading any articles that look interesting from the TD Twitter feed. I feel that there needs to be a Twins Daily person devoted entirely to promoting articles from the blogs to the front page. Additionally, it might help if there is some way for that TD person to be notified every time a new blog post is submitted. It'll become overwhelming with enough new blog posts, but when that time comes, you'd just add on another person or two to review the incoming articles. I feel that this would be the easiest way to fix the main problem of struggling to organically develop writers.

Download attachment: Dozier.jpg Two weeks ago, I had a post where I guessed the probabilities of four non-roster invitees successfully making the Twins’ Opening Day roster. At the very bottom was “savior” Brian Dozier, stating that his probability was an F. No chance. Nada. Well, it looks like one of the Twins brass doesn’t agree. General Manager Terry Ryan stated that the recent demotion of Tsuyoshi Nishioka “has nothing to do with Dozier,” but that could easily be interpreted to mean “Nishioka’s only shot of starting the season with us was as a utility infielder, and Dozier’s not going to fill that role for us.” [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] There seems to be some rumblings that Dozier is not guaranteed of being sent to the minor leagues, as I first thought. For one, he’s now survived two sets of cuts from spring training, despite the fact that he’s never seen any action in Triple-A.* Two, even with the offseason signing of Jamey Carroll to play shortstop, there’s still a way to fit Dozier into the picture. * Though the same can be said of Joe Benson and Chris Parmelee, and neither of them are likely to be on the major league roster at the beginning of the season, either. Carroll and projected starting second baseman Alexi Casilla both have the ability to play the middle infield positions. The same is true for Dozier, though there are some questions on his range at shortstop. Additionally, the removal of Nishioka means the Twins do not have a really good backup infield option for the bench. It could be Luke Hughes, but the Twins won’t put him at shortstop unless it’s an emergency. It might be Trevor Plouffe, but the Twins appear to want him to become a full-time outfielder. Out of Carroll, Casilla, and Dozier, it’s clear that Dozier will not be the utility infielder. While I won’t place him on a pedestal like Tom Powers, I do think he has a chance of being a Danny Valencia-esque player at shortstop (read: someone that won’t be a star, but can hold down the fort, possibly all the way through his arbitration years). However, Carroll and Casilla are good fits for this role. Certainly Carroll isn’t preferable because of his contract, but that’s been his role for his whole career. Meanwhile, Casilla is the cheaper option, and I don’t think anyone could really argue that moving him to backing up the infield will hurt the team. This means that we have several possibilities that could play out if Dozier indeed breaks camp with the major league club. He could be the starting shortstop, with either Casilla or Carroll manning second while the other is on the bench, or Dozier is at second base with the same arrangement for Carroll at shortstop and Casilla on the bench or vice-versa. If this was to happen, I’d hope for Dozier to be at shortstop (provided his defense has been proven to be adequate) with Carroll at second base. But will this happen? I still think no. Just like with Parmelee and Benson, I feel that Dozier is destined for Triple-A. The Twins may be talking him up right now, but his lack of experience above Double-A is currently a red flag. Sure, there have been people promoted directly to the big leagues from Double-A that stuck, but those are typically top prospects, not fringe guys like Dozier. While there may be hints from the front office that he has a chance of joining the Twins in Baltimore to kick off the season, I still feel it won’t happen. That F that I gave him two weeks ago is going to stick. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: tampa-rays.jpg Buyer or Seller? All Tampa had to do was exorcise the Devil. Although smarter baseball decisions and being the beneficiaries of a never-ending parade of minor league prospects led to success in St. Petersburg, one cannot help but notice the coincidence of the team becoming winners ever since they changed their team name from “Devil Rays” to simply “Rays.” That success has continued this year in the hellish AL East as they find themselves battling the Boston Red Sox both for the division lead and the best record in the American League, while trying to fend off the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees. Despite trading away top starter James Shields, they have not missed a beat this year and find themselves looking to add some reinforcements for the rest of the season and the playoffs. But, where can they still improve? What They Need Starting Pitching At the beginning of the season, it looked like the Rays made an absolute steal in picking up Roberto Hernandez (the former “Faux-sto” Carmona) in free agency, but his numbers have regressed to the point that he now has a high-4 ERA. A similar story is Jeremy Hellickson, who had beaten his peripheral numbers in his first two full seasons, but is now underperforming those numbers as he has a 4.62 ERA but a 3.84 FIP. One reinforcement is for Alex Cobb to return as he was one of their best pitchers prior to getting hit in the head with a line drive from Eric Hosmer on June 15th. Cobb suffered a concussion and is eying a return in August, but us Twins fans know that concussions can be finicky. If Cobb is unable to return and youngster Chris Archer starts to fade towards the end of the season, the Rays might be interested in a veteran starting pitcher. Relief Pitching It seems like every playoff team always could use one more arm in the bullpen. With the exception of Alex Torres (who is having one hell of a season thus far), the Rays don’t have a shutdown reliever in the ‘pen. Jamey Wright is pitching well, but this is out of the ordinary for him. Fernando Rodney, a year removed from his record-setting season last year, has returned to the pitcher we know and love as his ERA is hovering around 4 as the closer for the Rays. They do have a solid setup reliever in Joel Peralta, and the supporting cast has actually pitched pretty well in spite of their ERAs. A savvy organization like the Rays could point to that as a reason to stick with what they have, but one could also argue that they might not trust Rodney as the closer and would look for an upgrade. Plus, as I first said, a playoff team seemingly always could use one more reliever, so perhaps they’d like a cheaper setup man instead. Catcher This one is a little tricky and I could actually be swayed to believe that this really isn’t a need. The Rays are pretty solid across the board with their position players, and the only position that is debatable is catcher. Right now, Jose Lobaton and Jose Molina have split the catching duties evenly this season. Lobaton’s offense has been perfectly acceptable as catcher, and while Molina’s offense is closer to what you’d expect in a backup catcher, his defense is highly regarded, especially in pitch framing. I could see the Rays arguing that they are content with Lobaton’s offense and Molina’s defense, but the Twins do have a player that could present an upgrade. No, it’s not Joe Mauer, get your head out of the sand. What Might Work Starting Pitching With Roberto Hernandez struggling, his rotation spot is the easy choice to replace. This could be Alex Cobb, but if he’s not fully recovered from his concussion, this may be a case where the Rays could look towards the Twins’ Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, or even Samuel Deduno. But, would they consider replacing Roberto Hernandez with Deduno, who is a similar pitcher? Relief Pitching This is pretty much the usual suspects you’d expect the Twins to shop around from their bullpen: Casey Fien, Jared Burton, and Glen Perkins. If the Rays feel like targeting an undervalued asset, then we could probably toss in Brian Duensing as well to team up with fellow lefties Jake McGee and Cesar Ramos. Catcher My suggestion here is that Ryan Doumit is a possibility, but he isn’t hitting well this year and his defense at catcher is a liability. Although he does have some positional flexibility with playing the outfield, the Rays are set with Wil Myers, Matt Joyce, Ben Zobrist, and Kelly Johnson covering the corners. Plus, as I mentioned before, they may just be content with their timeshare of Joses Lobaton & Molina and think that Doumit’s overall value won’t be an improvement. Sleeper Targets Most of the Rays’ middle range prospects are either outfielders or pitchers, and the Twins seem set on the outfield for eternity, so I specifically looked at starting pitchers they could target. SP Blake Snell (Low-A) Snell is a 20-year old left-handed pitcher that was just drafted in 2011 from Shorewood HS in Washington. He has a low-90s fastball as part of the standard 4-pitch mix (fastball, slider, curve, change-up) and reportedly will throw his breaking balls with different tilts. He has struggled with his control in Single-A this year (6.32 BB/9) so he represents quite a bit of risk, but his change-up and slider are projected to be above-average pitches. He will be a bit of a project and won’t be expected to debut in the majors for a few more years, but he could be another starting pitcher to look forward to in the next couple seasons. SP Felipe Rivero (High-A) Rivero is another lefthander that is 22 years old from Venezuela. He features a low-90s fastball with good command, a quality curveball and a change-up. However, he is very small (6’0”, 150 lbs.) and thus a full workload as a starting pitcher is a real concern. Also, his strikeouts have already been dropping significantly in the low minors, so he might end up being another pitch-to-contact hurler. He has a good chance of becoming a reliever, so Rivero may be the return for a lesser value Twin, such as Correia or Pelfrey. SP Alex Colome (Triple-A / Majors) Colome is a 24-year old righthander from the Dominican Republic. He features the best fastball out of these three pitchers as it can touch the mid-90s, and he also mixes in a potentially above-average curveball and a cutter/slider hybrid pitch. Colome has already made 3 starts for Tampa Bay this season, so he could appeal to the Twins as a major league ready starting pitcher. As you might expect from a pitcher with a big arm, Colome has control issues so walks will definitely be a problem. He could end up as a late inning reliever, but certainly the Twins would give him plenty of chances to stick as a starter before putting him on the Glen Perkins track (not to say he’d become as dominant as Perkins). Dream Target SP Chris Archer (Triple-A / Majors) I see Chris Archer and can’t help but think that he’s a better version of Alex Colome. Another 24-year old, Archer also has a mid-90s fastball and 2-seamer and backs those up with an excellent slider (Archer’s is discussed as the best secondary offering from a prospect) and a developing change-up. He does have the ability to rack up strikeouts with those two pitches, but his change-up and control will likely be the determining factor if he can stick in the majors as a starter or if he is destined to become a reliever. Adding Archer to the Twins’ future plans would make him a nice piece to team up with Alex Meyer, Trevor May, and Kyle Gibson in the rotation for the next few years. Click here to view the article

Since the first season at Target Field in 2010, there’s been a common complaint among hitters: the fences are too far away. We’ve seen and heard of players attempting to pull the ball down the lines because that’s the best way to get the ball out of the park. These pictures of home runs at Target Field confirms this belief (from Hit Tracker Online). [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] http://weareoffthemark.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/target-field-2011.jpg?w=450&h=441 Target Field Home Runs 2011 http://weareoffthemark.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/target-field-2010.jpg?w=450&h=441 Target Field Home Runs 2010 You may have some questions about these pictures. Why is there a percentage in the upper right corner of each picture? Why are those lines there? Why are the areas not even? Look at the TF 2011 picture. You’ll notice that most home runs are contained within the right and left field portions of the field. I will admit that these lines are completely drawn arbitrarily, and it certainly is odd that I made one side bigger than the other. For that, I’ll point towards the fences at Target Field. You know that the right field fence is taller than the left field fence, and that (along with wind currents, or Baseball Gods, or something) have managed to cause fewer balls to go out in the RF alley compared to the LF alley. Anyway, despite the unevenness, a nice coincidence is that this area sums to an angle of 45%, or half of a baseball field. Now, another complaint you may have is that obviously it will be easier to hit the ball out down the lines than to straightaway center field. This is why I’ve included the percentages in the upper right. These represent the percentage of home runs that were hit into the outer two areas last season. As you can see, both are 77% (2011 should actually be 78%, and 2010′s rounded up to 77%, so it was not actually equal each season). For comparison, I’ve included a more homer-friendly park in Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field, and also the Metrodome in 2009. http://weareoffthemark.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/us-cellular-2011.png?w=450&h=442 U.S. Cellular Field 2011 http://weareoffthemark.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/metrodome-2009.jpg?w=450&h=442 Metrodome 2009 I’ll admit that 73% doesn’t seem all that different from 77%, but maybe the players are able to take more notice than we can. However, there’s no denying the difference between the Dome and Target Field. Not only were there more homers hit in 2009, but they were also sent out more frequently to center field and the alleys, as only 66% of all home runs were hit into the left field and right field areas. Players started getting it into their minds that they had to pull the ball to get it out of the park (except Jim Thome), and it started affecting their hitting. With this in the back of my head, I’m wondering if the Twins haven’t adopted a new philosophy when it comes to hitting. You may be familiar with “Whitey-ball,” dubbed for Whitey Herzog, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1980s. His team relied on speed, defense, and hitting line drives to take advantage of the AstroTurf in Busch Memorial Stadium, and Whitey-ball was credited with helping the team win the 1982 World Series. Starting with last season, it appears as though the Twins have adopted a similar mindset. This started with the trade of J.J. Hardy prior to last season, where the Twins cited a need to add speed to the lineup. From last season and this offseason, they lost Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel, and Jim Thome, three big home run hitters, and really only have Josh Willingham has a viable power replacement. It’s Whitey-ball, or perhaps more appropriately the return of Gardy-ball. Back in the Dome days, Gardy-ball was essentially the mirror image of Whitey-ball. But now, it’s being done for a whole different reason. Over the past two seasons, hitters have been altering their swings to hit the ball out. With this current lineup, it’s as if the Twins have assembled a group of slap hitters and are going to tell them, “Don’t even attempt to beat the system.” The Twins are likely going to be having these guys hitting in order next season: Alexi Casilla (8th), Ben Revere (9th), Denard Span (1st), Jamey Carroll (2nd). Those guys certainly are not going to get many people excited, as evidenced by Patrick Reusse and my response to him over a week ago. It is indeed like a relay team of leadoff hitters, none of which are going to challenge 10 homers this season, so maybe it’s not necessarily “Don’t even attempt to beat the system,” but rather “Don’t even attempt to beat the system (it’s not like you have a chance in the first place).” In fact, that’s almost exactly what Twins hitting coach Joe Vavra said in an interview with the Pioneer Press: “We have to stop thinking we can beat that ballpark.” It sounds like Vavra wants to get the hitters back into spraying the ball around the field instead of trying to yank everything over the pull-side fence. If the hitters listen, this could be a chance to get the Twins to return to the middle of the pack when it comes to scoring runs, instead of being stuck at the bottom like they were last year. However, I must agree with Parker Hageman here in that the Twins shouldn’t mess with Josh Willingham. Parker has shown us that Willingham is already a pull hitter that appears to have a good chance of succeeding in Target Field, and if the Twins try to get him to chance his approach, we could have a repeat of David Ortiz on our hands. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that it looks like the Twins are going to try to pound it into the hitters’ heads that they shouldn’t treat home runs as their only positive result. If the pitch is inside, then feel free to yank it down the line. But if it’s on the outside, remember that hitting it up the middle or to the opposite field is going to be more likely to yield a better result than trying to yank that pitch as well. You know how Joe Mauer grounds out to second base so often? It can usually be attributed to him attempting to pull a pitch that was on the outer half of the plate. The Twins don’t project to compete for a playoff spot this season, but working on improving the offense simply by attacking the ballpark in a different way should help the team score more runs this season. Click here to view the article

One thing about Pelfrey's slider though - it's actually a cutter. I discovered this when I did a "look at all the cutters the Twins' staff throw!" for Twinkie Town early during the 2013 season: http://www.twinkietown.com/2013/5/30/4354198/is-the-cutter-the-twins-new-market-inefficiency Here's the article I found that confirmed that Pelfrey was throwing a cutter rather than a slider: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110626&content_id=21023390&notebook_id=21023396&vkey=notebook_nym&c_id=nym

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=2147-Trade-Talk-Tampa-Bay-Rays

Buyer or Seller? All Tampa had to do was exorcise the Devil. Although smarter baseball decisions and being the beneficiaries of a never-ending parade of minor league prospects led to success in St. Petersburg, one cannot help but notice the coincidence of the team becoming winners ever since they changed their team name from “Devil Rays” to simply “Rays.” That success has continued this year in the hellish AL East as they find themselves battling the Boston Red Sox both for the division lead and the best record in the American League, while trying to fend off the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees. Despite trading away top starter James Shields, they have not missed a beat this year and find themselves looking to add some reinforcements for the rest of the season and the playoffs. But, where can they still improve? What They Need - Starting Pitching At the beginning of the season, it looked like the Rays made an absolute steal in picking up Roberto Hernandez (the former “Faux-sto” Carmona) in free agency, but his numbers have regressed to the point that he now has a high-4 ERA. A similar story is Jeremy Hellickson, who had beaten his peripheral numbers in his first two full seasons, but is now underperforming those numbers as he has a 4.62 ERA but a 3.84 FIP. One reinforcement is for Alex Cobb to return as he was one of their best pitchers prior to getting hit in the head with a line drive from Eric Hosmer on June 15th. Cobb suffered a concussion and is eyeing a return in August, but us Twins fans know that concussions can be finicky. If Cobb is unable to return and youngster Chris Archer starts to fade towards the end of the season, the Rays might be interested in a veteran starting pitcher. - Relief Pitching It seems like every playoff team always could use one more arm in the bullpen. With the exception of Alex Torres (who is having one hell of a season thus far), the Rays don’t have a shutdown reliever in the ‘pen. Jamey Wright is pitching well, but this is out of the ordinary for him. Fernando Rodney, a year removed from his record-setting season last year, has returned to the pitcher we know and love as his ERA is hovering around 4 as the closer for the Rays. They do have a solid setup reliever in Joel Peralta, and the supporting cast has actually pitched pretty well in spite of their ERAs. A savvy organization like the Rays could point to that as a reason to stick with what they have, but one could also argue that they might not trust Rodney as the closer and would look for an upgrade. Plus, as I first said, a playoff team seemingly always could use one more reliever, so perhaps they’d like a cheaper setup man instead. - Catcher This one is a little tricky and I could actually be swayed to believe that this really isn’t a need. The Rays are pretty solid across the board with their position players, and the only position that is debatable is catcher. Right now, Jose Lobaton and Jose Molina have split the catching duties evenly this season. Lobaton’s offense has been perfectly acceptable as catcher, and while Molina’s offense is closer to what you’d expect in a backup catcher, his defense is highly regarded, especially in pitch framing. I could see the Rays arguing that they are content with Lobaton’s offense and Molina’s defense, but the Twins do have a player that could present an upgrade. No, it’s not Joe Mauer, get your head out of the sand. What Might Work - Starting Pitching With Roberto Hernandez struggling, his rotation spot is the easy choice to replace. This could be Alex Cobb, but if he’s not fully recovered from his concussion, this may be a case where the Rays could look towards the Twins’ Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, or even Samuel Deduno. But, would they consider replacing Roberto Hernandez with Deduno, who is a similar pitcher? - Relief Pitching This is pretty much the usual suspects you’d expect the Twins to shop around from their bullpen: Casey Fien, Jared Burton, and Glen Perkins. If the Rays feel like targeting an undervalued asset, then we could probably toss in Brian Duensing as well to team up with fellow lefties Jake McGee and Cesar Ramos. - Catcher My suggestion here is that Ryan Doumit is a possibility, but he isn’t hitting well this year and his defense at catcher is a liability. Although he does have some positional flexibility with playing the outfield, the Rays are set with Wil Myers, Matt Joyce, Ben Zobrist, and Kelly Johnson covering the corners. Plus, as I mentioned before, they may just be content with their timeshare of Joses Lobaton & Molina and think that Doumit’s overall value won’t be an improvement. Sleeper Targets Most of the Rays’ middle range prospects are either outfielders or pitchers, and the Twins seem set on the outfield for eternity, so I specifically looked at starting pitchers they could target. - SP Blake Snell (Low-A) Snell is a 20-year old lefthanded pitcher that was just drafted in 2011 from Shorewood HS in Washington. He has a low-90s fastball as part of the standard 4-pitch mix (fastball, slider, curve, change-up) and reportedly will throw his breaking balls with different tilts. He has struggled with his control in Single-A this year (6.32 BB/9) so he represents quite a bit of risk, but his change-up and slider are projected to be above-average pitches. He will be a bit of a project and won’t be expected to debut in the majors for a few more years, but he could be another starting pitcher to look forward to in the next couple seasons. - SP Felipe Rivero (High-A) Rivero is another lefthander that is 22 years old from Venezuela. He features a low-90s fastball with good command, a quality curveball and a change-up. However, he is very small (6’0”, 150 lbs.) and thus a full workload as a starting pitcher is a real concern. Also, his strikeouts have already been dropping significantly in the low minors, so he might end up being another pitch-to-contact hurler. He has a good chance of becoming a reliever, so Rivero may be the return for a lesser value Twin, such as Correia or Pelfrey. - SP Alex Colome (Triple-A / Majors) Colome is a 24-year old righthander from the Dominican Republic. He features the best fastball out of these three pitchers as it can touch the mid-90s, and he also mixes in a potentially above-average curveball and a cutter/slider hybrid pitch. Colome has already made 3 starts for Tampa Bay this season, so he could appeal to the Twins as a major league ready starting pitcher. As you might expect from a pitcher with a big arm, Colome has control issues so walks will definitely be a problem. He could end up as a late inning reliever, but certainly the Twins would give him plenty of chances to stick as a starter before putting him on the Glen Perkins track (not to say he’d become as dominant as Perkins). Dream Target - SP Chris Archer (Triple-A / Majors) I see Chris Archer and can’t help but think that he’s a better version of Alex Colome. Another 24-year old, Archer also has a mid-90s fastball and 2-seamer and backs those up with an excellent slider (Archer’s is discussed as the best secondary offering from a prospect) and a developing change-up. He does have the ability to rack up strikeouts with those two pitches, but his change-up and control will likely be the determining factor if he can stick in the majors as a starter or if he is destined to become a reliever. Adding Archer to the Twins’ future plans would make him a nice piece to team up with Alex Meyer, Trevor May, and Kyle Gibson in the rotation for the next few years.

Buyer or Seller? All Tampa had to do was exorcise the Devil. Although smarter baseball decisions and being the beneficiaries of a never-ending parade of minor league prospects led to success in St. Petersburg, one cannot help but notice the coincidence of the team becoming winners ever since they changed their team name from “Devil Rays” to simply “Rays.” That success has continued this year in the hellish AL East as they find themselves battling the Boston Red Sox both for the division lead and the best record in the American League, while trying to fend off the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees. Despite trading away top starter James Shields, they have not missed a beat this year and find themselves looking to add some reinforcements for the rest of the season and the playoffs. But, where can they still improve? What They Need - Starting Pitching At the beginning of the season, it looked like the Rays made an absolute steal in picking up Roberto Hernandez (the former “Faux-sto” Carmona) in free agency, but his numbers have regressed to the point that he now has a high-4 ERA. A similar story is Jeremy Hellickson, who had beaten his peripheral numbers in his first two full seasons, but is now underperforming those numbers as he has a 4.62 ERA but a 3.84 FIP. One reinforcement is for Alex Cobb to return as he was one of their best pitchers prior to getting hit in the head with a line drive from Eric Hosmer on June 15th. Cobb suffered a concussion and is eyeing a return in August, but us Twins fans know that concussions can be finicky. If Cobb is unable to return and youngster Chris Archer starts to fade towards the end of the season, the Rays might be interested in a veteran starting pitcher. - Relief Pitching It seems like every playoff team always could use one more arm in the bullpen. With the exception of Alex Torres (who is having one hell of a season thus far), the Rays don’t have a shutdown reliever in the ‘pen. Jamey Wright is pitching well, but this is out of the ordinary for him. Fernando Rodney, a year removed from his record-setting season last year, has returned to the pitcher we know and love as his ERA is hovering around 4 as the closer for the Rays. They do have a solid setup reliever in Joel Peralta, and the supporting cast has actually pitched pretty well in spite of their ERAs. A savvy organization like the Rays could point to that as a reason to stick with what they have, but one could also argue that they might not trust Rodney as the closer and would look for an upgrade. Plus, as I first said, a playoff team seemingly always could use one more reliever, so perhaps they’d like a cheaper setup man instead. - Catcher This one is a little tricky and I could actually be swayed to believe that this really isn’t a need. The Rays are pretty solid across the board with their position players, and the only position that is debatable is catcher. Right now, Jose Lobaton and Jose Molina have split the catching duties evenly this season. Lobaton’s offense has been perfectly acceptable as catcher, and while Molina’s offense is closer to what you’d expect in a backup catcher, his defense is highly regarded, especially in pitch framing. I could see the Rays arguing that they are content with Lobaton’s offense and Molina’s defense, but the Twins do have a player that could present an upgrade. No, it’s not Joe Mauer, get your head out of the sand. What Might Work - Starting Pitching With Roberto Hernandez struggling, his rotation spot is the easy choice to replace. This could be Alex Cobb, but if he’s not fully recovered from his concussion, this may be a case where the Rays could look towards the Twins’ Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, or even Samuel Deduno. But, would they consider replacing Roberto Hernandez with Deduno, who is a similar pitcher? - Relief Pitching This is pretty much the usual suspects you’d expect the Twins to shop around from their bullpen: Casey Fien, Jared Burton, and Glen Perkins. If the Rays feel like targeting an undervalued asset, then we could probably toss in Brian Duensing as well to team up with fellow lefties Jake McGee and Cesar Ramos. - Catcher My suggestion here is that Ryan Doumit is a possibility, but he isn’t hitting well this year and his defense at catcher is a liability. Although he does have some positional flexibility with playing the outfield, the Rays are set with Wil Myers, Matt Joyce, Ben Zobrist, and Kelly Johnson covering the corners. Plus, as I mentioned before, they may just be content with their timeshare of Joses Lobaton & Molina and think that Doumit’s overall value won’t be an improvement. Sleeper Targets Most of the Rays’ middle range prospects are either outfielders or pitchers, and the Twins seem set on the outfield for eternity, so I specifically looked at starting pitchers they could target. - SP Blake Snell (Low-A) Snell is a 20-year old lefthanded pitcher that was just drafted in 2011 from Shorewood HS in Washington. He has a low-90s fastball as part of the standard 4-pitch mix (fastball, slider, curve, change-up) and reportedly will throw his breaking balls with different tilts. He has struggled with his control in Single-A this year (6.32 BB/9) so he represents quite a bit of risk, but his change-up and slider are projected to be above-average pitches. He will be a bit of a project and won’t be expected to debut in the majors for a few more years, but he could be another starting pitcher to look forward to in the next couple seasons. - SP Felipe Rivero (High-A) Rivero is another lefthander that is 22 years old from Venezuela. He features a low-90s fastball with good command, a quality curveball and a change-up. However, he is very small (6’0”, 150 lbs.) and thus a full workload as a starting pitcher is a real concern. Also, his strikeouts have already been dropping significantly in the low minors, so he might end up being another pitch-to-contact hurler. He has a good chance of becoming a reliever, so Rivero may be the return for a lesser value Twin, such as Correia or Pelfrey. - SP Alex Colome (Triple-A / Majors) Colome is a 24-year old righthander from the Dominican Republic. He features the best fastball out of these three pitchers as it can touch the mid-90s, and he also mixes in a potentially above-average curveball and a cutter/slider hybrid pitch. Colome has already made 3 starts for Tampa Bay this season, so he could appeal to the Twins as a major league ready starting pitcher. As you might expect from a pitcher with a big arm, Colome has control issues so walks will definitely be a problem. He could end up as a late inning reliever, but certainly the Twins would give him plenty of chances to stick as a starter before putting him on the Glen Perkins track (not to say he’d become as dominant as Perkins). Dream Target - SP Chris Archer (Triple-A / Majors) I see Chris Archer and can’t help but think that he’s a better version of Alex Colome. Another 24-year old, Archer also has a mid-90s fastball and 2-seamer and backs those up with an excellent slider (Archer’s is discussed as the best secondary offering from a prospect) and a developing change-up. He does have the ability to rack up strikeouts with those two pitches, but his change-up and control will likely be the determining factor if he can stick in the majors as a starter or if he is destined to become a reliever. Adding Archer to the Twins’ future plans would make him a nice piece to team up with Alex Meyer, Trevor May, and Kyle Gibson in the rotation for the next few years.

Nope, players are only in the game if they happened to play in the big leagues during the prior season. I believe it's due to the contract that the player's union has with The Show. However, there are always some weird guys that fall through the cracks, such as Tsuyoshi Wada being in the game for the Orioles despite not pitching a single major league inning last season.

I just got The Show as well. I noticed De Vries' crazy-high rating relative to the other starters as well, but it was likely due to his decent ERA and great control. I, however, am never satisfied with what is given. I honestly go to FanGraphs and Texas Leaguers (PITCHf/x website) and adjust the players' stats myself. I do this because of the De Vries of the game that are given odd, inexplicable ratings, and I'm not content with the updates. It adds a hell of a lot of time put into the game, but when I'm finally finished with all 30 teams, I'm satisfied that I've made the game as realistic as I possibly can.... more realistic than Sony could do on their own.

I agree, the Twins really should have committed to a rebuild. Yes, it's a bit embarrassing for it to happen just after moving into a new ballpark, but when the current group isn't getting it done, you've got to change it. The most frustrating thing about the Twins keeping Willingham and Morneau for this season is that it feels like those decisions were made in order to keep drawing fans to the ballpark rather than to improve the team in the long run. Also, I don't know if the Twins are in denial or think that they can contend for the playoffs with the right breaks, but it really does not feel like this will be a good team this year. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped St. Peter and Ryan from saying that this team will compete in 2013, when there is so much evidence to the contrary. Yes, the starting pitching looks like it will be better this year, but that doesn't mean that it will be good. The offense last year was middling and it's arguably worse this year with the loss of Span and no improvements made to the middle infield. I will still watch this team, and will Hicks, Arcia, etc. on the way it should be an entertaining team, but I don't have my hopes up this season.

While collecting those stances was amusing last season, it would be nice if I have to add only one more to the end of that sequence. Glad to see that pic made it into this article!

This mimics what Parker said about Willingham, but people used Hit Tracker to show that Mauer's 2009 career year benefited from a bunch of "Just Enough/Lucky" home runs, far more than he usually hit. However, like you've been asking, no one has used the website to say that a power hitter was unlucky one year and could regress back up to his career norms.

The idea is good in theory, especially with giving fewer innings to all the pitchers coming back from injury, but as jmlease1 said above, Gardy and Anderson would never do it. They'd probably cite something like "pitchers are uncomfortable if they were asked to regularly start every 6th day."

This seems to agree with what I've been told by Dave St. Peter... the Twins believe they are middle of the road when it comes to advanced statistics. One thing I had St. Peter tell me is that the organization does not want other teams to know what they use. He doesn't mind that the fans think this team's sabermetrics is counting home runs and looking at ERA, because he feels that if the team has an advantage, they are not going to broadcast it to the world a la Billy Beane and Moneyball.

Just something to be aware of... typically when a pitcher is having a throwing session, it means nothing more than that. As in, he's literally just playing catch, and not actually pitching. If the Twins do sign him, it's not going to be right after this throwing session.

Um, Parra and Span are pretty similar stat-wise. The only difference is that Parra has primarily played the corner outfield, whereas Span has been a center fielder. Arizona won't take Span.

Sorry, really should have condensed my thoughts.... My boss from the Twins (I'm an usher at Target Field, for those that didn't know) gave us our own Terry Ryan Q&A back in August. Here are the questions that he had already answered (so there's no need to ask these to him again). Just so you all know, I believe he was answering these questions via email, which is why the answers are so short. Why is there no (affiliated) Minor League teams in Minnesota? Wisconsin has 2, Iowa has 5-6, Minnesota has 0. We have the communities to support one (Rochester, Mankato, St. Cloud, etc.) and have a league (Midwest and to a stretch PCL) to play in. It would be nice to not have to travel 6 hours to Beloit to see the closest affiliate. Thoughts? The Twins don’ decide what city the affiliate is in. The clubs are usually privately owned. If somebody wanted to join the Midwest League, they could buy an existing franchise, possibly get league approval, & move the club. With the limited payroll that the Twins have to work with on a year to year basis what are you doing to try and rebuild the minor league system with potential pitchers that can help us for the future? Is the international market a good way to build to help in the very near future, or can it strap cash that you can use for the draft and find a hidden gem? We do not have a limited payroll. We are in the top 10 in the game. Draft & develop is the best way to get pitching. Trades, waiver claims, international acquisitions, Rule 5 selections all are avenues to pursue for pitching. While Liriano was pitching so well, has the success been partially attributed to Butera being a personal catcher, and when the GM's inquired about acquiring Francisco, were they looking to deal for Butera as well? We don’t believe in personal catchers. Liriano is doing fine with the CWS regardless of who might catch him. You were hired this past offseason as interim GM but are still GM. Are you still looking for the right guy to replace you or do you wish to continue with this position for a few more years? That decision will be made at the end of the year. What is your most memorable moment working for the Twins? Winning the 1987 World Series. How do you find such quality players when you look to fill up the non-roster invitee roster? It seems like you always find god players, such as Jared Burton. We rely on our scouts & minor league staff to make recommendations. When sifting through players that go through waivers, possible non-roster invitees, etc., is there something in particular that you look for in a player? To use Burton as an example, since he was coming off of injury, why did you think that he would be a good candidate to fill out the bullpen? Did his past success with the Reds play into the decision, even though it was several years ago? All of the above. We knew Burton’s history; all he had to do was get healthy. Our scouts, minor league & major league staffs all contribute to player acquisitions. 1) What do you consider the most sought out qualities of an individual that would be successful working in baseball. Work ethic, common sense, accountability, drive, team oriented. 2) When mentioned, the ‘Twins way’ often has an un-definable or ever evolving quality, when considering it, what aspects of a ball player do you consider to uphold this term? There is no Twins way. It is the right way. A player has to play the game the right way. That is all we expect. 3) If you were to work in another area of baseball, within the Twins organization, what department most peaks your interest and why? Minor leagues & scouting. Why did you trade Liriano with three days left until the deadline? Doesn't it make sense to wait until teams get more desperate and the offers improve? We did our homework. We knew the offers. We knew the competition & interest. We certainly didn’t want Francisco to get hurt. Which advanced statistics do the Twins employ the most to complement their other more traditional scouting methods? Most advanced stats are used but you have to make a decision on all forms of information. Scouting, age, makeup, stats, need, projection, contract information etc. Many people focus on the starting pitching as a position of need, but one that I think that has been lacking for several years now is the bench. With the exceptions of Jim Thome (as he was originally signed to be a pinch-hitter and occasional DH) and Sean Burroughs (who didn't turn out as well as we hoped), the bench has usually been occupied by the likes of Matt Tolbert, Alexi Casilla, Drew Butera, and other light-hitting players. This has left Gardy with few pinch-hitting options late in games, meaning he often has to turn to someone like Casilla, who is a career .248 hitter. Additionally, when a starter goes down with an injury, the Twins have often had to turn to the "replacement level" player to fill in the hole. For example, this is like Butera and Rene Tosoni last year when Kubel and Mauer were hurt. Yes, on the defensive side they are just fine, but their offense did not help out the team. However, a player I think could provide both offensive and defensive value is Eric Hinske, who has experience at both outfield and infield corners, and also has some power in his bat. With that said, I finally get to my question. Am I correct in my assessment that (excluding Thome), the Twins look for players with defensive versatility. Hinske is a nice bench player. He decided to stay with the Braves. We look for good baseball players. As you have seen this year, we’re carrying 13 pitchers so pitching is the name of the game. What has been your most satisfying and least satisfying moment as the Twins GM? Qualifying for the playoffs is most satisfying & injuries are the most frustrating. What three aspects do feel you help bring to the organization? Work ethic, accountability, loyalty. What was your path to how you became a major league GM? Player, scout, scouting director, assistant G.M., G.M. What advice do you have for anyone trying to start a career in baseball? Get your foot in the door & work your way up.

In response to some of the "What advanced statistics do you use?" questions... good luck with that. I interviewed Dave St. Peter back in February and I asked him that very question and he was not willing to share very much. He specifically cited Moneyball and that he felt it was a poor decision by Billy Beane to reveal his secrets.

Sorry if someone has already covered this, but... 2b) I believe the Twins said that they would like to add a coach that speaks Spanish. 3a) Yes there is, his name is Jack Goin. His name is on the "front office" list of people on the Twins website.

Put my name on it.