slash129

Swarzy better start stretching out ... Gardy will have to pull Hughes at 4.1 at this rate ... 101 pitches on April 3 would just be disastrous

That was ugly, but I guess it worked sans pitch count. Edit: No-Hitter thru 1

Next up we get Eaton Semien

Gotta hand it to Correia ... Quite efficient thru 5 ... Bats need to reward him now

I hope Colabello gets a fair shake with PAs. I imagine he will DH or spell Arcia in RF vs. lefties and give Mauer the occasional day off at 1B. There's always a late bloomer now and then that puts up some good years. Mike Morse comes to mind.

Great piece, AJ. Love the burnt wood anecdote. Good luck and enjoy your 2014 baseball season.

Will be watching Parmelee's production if he is picked up by another team who's patient with him and gives him a legitimate opportunity ... If he puts up Garrett Jones type numbers, I will then compare those numbers to the half season of sub-.700 OPS (sub-.500 vs lefties) that will likely come from Kubel and continue scratching my head.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon here in Bloomington. My wife had asked me to run the tiller over an area where she wanted to garden. The Twins had already lost the first two games of the series to the Yankees (which I'm pretty sure put them at double-digit consecutive losses to the Bombers), so I figured I could cut in and out of the game "on break" to till and watch the game. The Twins were down late in the game, so my concentration definitely swung more to getting the tilling done. Luckily, my chronically drunk neighbor had a decent-sized TV in the gazebo of the house he rented that I could see looking over the hedge. He also provided some relatively entertaining slurred play-by-play, so I knew when to peer over and catch what was going on. Most of you already know what happened, but I'll continue. The Twins got the bases loaded and Rivera came in to save it. My neighbor was sounding more and more like a sailor with each pitch. Then I hear "C'mon Kubel you #$#$%!!, It's Lefty on Righty!!! Just as I'm peering over, this happens: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100516&content_id=10084276&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=min .... And that is how I'd like to remember Jason Kubel I see some logos here and there about getting 400 PAs for Eduardo Escobar. I'd like to see the same for Parmelee this season. He can play right field, DH and spell Mauer 2-3 times a month at 1B. If he doesn't prove himself this year with a reasonable look, then I think the Twins can say they game him a fair shot. I look at Garret Jones, then stretch a bit and look at Big Papi, and then stretch even more to a different org and look at Chris Davis and think patience and a decent shot at regular playing time could pay off. Kubel doesn't do much for me in the now. DH? Pinch-Hit? Pair with Willingham to cover the least amount of ground in the corners in MLB? It can be fun to think about one of your favorite bands getting back together until the singer steps up to the mic. Then you wish you would just have kept reliving the memory of seeing them in '92.

Carroll is just who I thought of while reading this article. Beresford appears to be the player that will do what he is asked and do it well with peak effort. X-Factor Eckstein is another player who comes to mind. He also broke into the league at 25. There is INF opportunity on this club, and it's pretty reasonable to say that Beresford could be the one to reach out and take it. I like these players, but .... Sano - Out for the year Plouffe - Glove?, One-month wonder? Florimon - Appendectomy recovery, offense?, consistency? Escobar - ?? ... May just need more opportunity Bernier - Old, AAA filler? Bartlett - Old, Done? Rosario - Suspended Santana - Glove? ... Hasn't played AAA Romero - ?? ... Another guy with a possible opportunity

I'd be happy to get Chris Taylor from Seattle for Willingham, but I don't think that could even happen unless Hammer puts up something resembling 2012 the first half.

What are the chances that Yohan Pino emerges as a dark horse for a spot? He was the PTBNL in the Pavano trade several years ago and has come full circle. I know he's 30 and has yet to crack the bigs, but his career MiLB numbers look somewhat appealing - especially BB/9 and K/BB.

I just came across this site over the holidays and have made it what it's called as a lurker for the six weeks since then. My browser tabs usually go GMail, Yahoo Mail, Ebay, TwinsDaily of late. I decided to create an account today. It's been great reading all the articles and discussions around the direction of the team. I guess I'd like to ask why the Twins seem to be so interested in cornering the market on soft-tossing AAAA lefties of late. I guess if they could get 16 of them and each one makes an Albers-esque debut and follow-up, they'd be set.