Shane Wahl

Plouffe would be on my short leash, man. Such players are proving to be platoon-only types. Same for Valencia, unfortunately. Maybe recalling Valencia and Burroughs and platooning . . . otherwise, cycle in Ray Chang and see how he does.

The Twins: Clete Thomas = for whatever reason still at Rochester, posted a .143/172/.286 line with zero walks and 16 strikeouts in 28 PA. Eric Komatsu = still decent pickup, but posting a .227/.333/.227 line in 26 PA. Chris Parmelee = strangely made team out of ST, even though Morneau was on the roster as well--totally out of place after skipping AAA: posting a terrible .185/250/.272 line in 86 PA, striking out 21 times while walking only five times. Trevor Plouffe = playing all over like Cuddyer, but not being able to hit at all. Draws walks, but that is it: .133/.288/.217 in 73 PA. That's 217 plate appearances with .168/.263/.251 (.514 OPS). Once or currently available free agents: Derrek Lee = In Baltimore last year (before a great finish with Pittsburgh), he had a .246/.302/.404 (.706 OPS) line in 359+ PA. Suppose a (doubtful) 10% OPS decline to .635. Brandon Inge = recently signed with Oakland and in 50 PA, he has a .227/.300/.545 (.845) line. His career Isolated Power is .155, but suppose a 25% reduction (doubtful) of that to .116. This means a .643 OPS. Bobby Abreu = signed with the Dodgers recently and has a combined (LAA/LAD) line of .255/.308/.404 (.712 OPS). Some of these conservative estimates converted to more realistic estimates, and the Twins with these three guys would basically have 3 more Ryan Doumits offensively instead of the above nonsense. Komatsu offsets vs. Abreu some given the defensive differences there, but that's about it. Derrek Lee straight up replacing Chris Parmelee . . . Inge and Abreu instead of Plouffe, Thomas, and (to a lesser extent) Komatsu . . . This kind of offensive difference makes the 2-1 losses less likely. Throwing incentive money at these guys and you get all of them for a few million dollars, right? And this would mean not having "Revered" poor Parmelee this year so he could continue progressing at AAA, not signing Thomas and Komatsu, and trading Plouffe for some low-A arm who one could take a chance on. And then, of course, you have Ryan Doumit and 3 others like him to offer as trade chips at the end of July if needed.

I am much less confident in the minor league roster management.

Have to say this: I HATE Joe Mauer bashing and I hate Drew Butera as a baseball player. But Joe Mauer and Drew Butera (playing) would be the least of our worries if this team had players who could play baseball at their own positions instead of: Trevor Plouffe, Chris Parmelee (I feel bad that he is being "Revered" this year), Danny Valencia, Nick Blackburn, Carl Pavano, Francisco Liriano, Jason Marquis. Upgrade even just a bit on all seven of these players and Joe Mauer's lack of slugging and Drew Butera's starting major league games would be correctly put on the back-burner.

I just wanted to bump this again to make sure people read it.

Seemed like he went away from the fastball and threw more out of the zone sliders. But I also submit this outing on May 14th as further evidence for my case.

He is rather embarrassing in non-save situations. A true closer indeed--actually not very good in tight, high-leverage situations, but ideal for 2 or 3 run leads.

No real reason to make that decision though. Bates has previously played some left field and I would think RF would not be out of the question. Clete Thomas, once again! I just don't understand. Parmelee has struggled for the Twins and Morneau's injuries for this season have started . . . and they already gave up on Hughes. This might indicate that Butera is staying for quite some time up with the Twins and that they do not really plan on calling anyone else up (like Carson).

Why release Bates? How about releasing Clete Thomas and giving Parmelee more time that way? Bates was a serviceable mlb potential player to fill in if needed this year. I thought it could be argued that he should have been called up earlier to replace Parmelee. What the hell?

Right-handed pitcher and no Komatsu or Casilla.

BLUE JAYS (18-15) 1. Kelly Johnson, 2B 2. Yunel Escobar, SS 3. Jose Bautista, RF 4. Edwin Encarnacion, DH 5. Eric Thames, LF 6. Brett Lawrie, 3B 7. Colby Rasmus, CF 8. Adam Lind, 1B 9. Jeff Mathis, C Starting pitcher: RH Drew Hutchinson (1-1, 6.65 ERA) TWINS (9-23) 1. Denard Span, CF 2. Brian Dozier, SS 3. Joe Mauer, C 4. Josh Willingham, LF 5. Ryan Doumit, DH 6. Trevor Plouffe, 3B 7. Chris Parmelee, 1B 8. Darin Mastroianni, RF 9. Jamey Carroll, 2B Starting pitcher: RH P.J. Walters (2012 debut)

Ben Revere is walking less this year in the minors than he EVER has. Look again. But speaking of a trade chip . . .

Good god, Roger Bernadina is terrible.

OF prospect or under 25 depth (FYI): Ben Revere, Joe Benson, Rene Tosoni, Aaron Hicks, Evan Bigley, Oswaldo Arcia, Angel Morales, Danny Rams, Lance Ray, Danny Ortiz, JD Williams, Nate Roberts, Drew Leachman, Max Kepler, Dereck Rodriguez . . . And perhaps Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario, and Niko Goodrum if they don't stick in the infield.

A: Rebuilding through prospects alone (and Joe Mauer) is risky business. So, B: One of the best rebuild-around veterans is the guy you would trade away for these prospects (pitching prospects, I would assume) C: That veteran is not replaceable in any easy way with what is in-house already, both offensively and, apparently defensively given your question marks about the OF prospects in house. So you would prefer to create a hole in the team that goes forward while adding pitching prospects. I would rather not create that hole and add major league pitchers, rebuilding much through free agency, and yes, trying to trade players and prospects where there is depth (OF, middle relief). I never mentioned trading those players right now, but rather at the deadline. It is NOT impossible to imagine that players like Valencia, Casilla, Capps, and Doumit might be worth something to contending teams looking to add missing pieces.

And it was pretty clear in the case of J.J. Hardy, Riverbrian.

Interesting to turn down a third round selection! Three years later and is he going to move up 40 spots? 50 spots?

Hopefully Valencia gets it together so that in a week Morneau and Valencia return and Parmelee and either Gray or Swarzak are sent down.

Clete Thomas and Joe Thurston again polluted Rochester's lineup tonight. This is just ridiculous to see. Neither one belongs in baseball. There have to be PROMOTIONS and signing under-25 guys to A+ or AA ball to fill in at lower levels. Wilkin Ramirez is not a AA player.

Finally just watched the game. First, Jared Burton's performance is not surprising. When healthy, he has been a very good reliever in his career. Second, Mastroianni and Komatsu are good additions to the team. Quick, on-base guys are valuable, and I am glad that these two have been successful. I am not sure what the future with the Twins is for either of them, but given Joe Benson's struggles, who knows?

Agreed. I don't understand it. The minor league management is so irrational much of the time. A fundamental rule should be that you DO NOT let such AA performers like Solarte in 2011 walk away. When players do that in AA or AAA, you have to keep them around. Joe Thurston. Full stop.

EXACTLY. Thank you.

Great for Bromberg. I am really cheering for him this year. I am also glad that Wilkin Ramirez is playing well.

Yeah this is crazy.

Should be interesting.