John Bonnes

Download attachment: 9225048-large.jpg Minnesota Twins fans finally have a mildly good reason to push the panic button. It wasn’t that Scott Baker was leaving the team – without an option year, his value the year after Tommy John isn’t particularly meaningful. It certainly isn’t that (gasp) other free agent starting pitchers are signing elsewhere – especially when only a handful have changed teams and there are an inordinate number of good starting pitchers on the market. And MOST OF ALL it isn’t that the Twins have dared to sign minor leaguers, which is business as usual for this time of year. But if you want to push it, go ahead. Because yesterday, the Atlanta Braves agreed to terms for center fielder BJ Upton. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]For Twins fans hoping for long-term upgrades to the Twins starting pitching staff, this is the worst news this offseason. The Braves have plenty of young (and affordable) pitching like that, and were in the market for 1) a center fielder and 2) right-handed power. What’s more, they had to be affordable, since the Braves are working on a corporate (inflexible) budget. Both Denard Span AND Josh Willingham had been floated in rumors from the Braves media entities, and it wasn’t out of the question that they could be attempting a blockbuster deal for both. Upton IS both. He’s a centerfielder, who hits right-handed and has hit 51 home runs over the last two years. And they got him for about $14M/year, which is just a couple of million more than Span and Willingham would have cost. Upton was the linchpin of the offseason for the Braves; he was the one player available to fill both needs at a reasonable price without trading away their starting pitching. The Twins and their fans will need to take solace in the cliché of the other broken-hearted: there are lots of other fish in the sea. There are. The Rays will need to replace Upton, the Phillies are actively courting center fielders and the Reds have been mentioned as a possible landing place for months. But the Braves represented the big one that got away. They were the single best option this offseason when trading for major-league-ready, affordable, young, top-half-of-the-rotation starting pitching. If the Braves had missed out on Upton, the Twins and Braves would have made stunningly good fits for each other. Without them interested, the Twins didn’t just lose one name from the “demand” side of the equation, they also lost their best trading partner. But at least Twins fans have found a reason to push the panic button in 3 …. 2 .... 1 …. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: winter-meltdown-pint.jpg Aaron and John talk about missing out on A.J. Pierzynski and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Joe Nathan going to Detroit, a Twins Daily event during TwinsFest that you won't want to miss, Liam Hendriks being dropped from the roster, podcasting from Hammerheart Brewing next week, Justin Morneau going to Colorado, what to make of Robinson Cano's contract, saying "I love you" to Amber, mailbag questions from listeners, podcast reviews from beautiful women, eating giant ice cream cakes at a bar, and being the bad boy of Minnesota Twins baseball bloggers. You can listen by clicking below,download us from iTunes or find it atGleemanAndTheGeek.com. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Click here to view the article

Download attachment: HIcks_Aaron_landscape.jpg Aaron and John talk about the Minnesota Twins' winning opening week, bouncing back from last week's podcast, what to make of Aaron Hicks' slow start, Glen Perkins' excellence and managing the bullpen, appreciating Roger Ebert, the upcoming "Tix For Tots" event, close games and late-inning heroics, Tyler Robertson's goodbye, and "The Running Man" coming true. Here are: the podcaststhe rss feed if you want to subscribe and the podcast on iTunes. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Or click on the link below... Click here to view the article

Aaron and John podcast from Freehouse and discuss the Twins final roster decisions, Kyle Gibson’s opportunity, losing Vance Worley and Alex Presley, distinctive Fanny Bay oysters, Byron Buxton’s injuries, gimpy knees, expectations for the Twins lineup, roto-bird, Aaron’s new iPhone and the magic of Tinder. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Here's the breakdown:[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]0 Aaron’s Knee 4 KFAN 8 Freehouse 11 25-man roster 12 Kyle Gibson 13 Wrong Aaron 14 Sam Deduno 17 Losing Worley 21 Losing Presley 23 Oysters 28 Keeping Bartlett 33 Bullpen moves 35 More Barltett 40 Keeping Guerrier 41 Powered by Cheese Curds 42 Buxton’s injury 46 Embracing “youth” 49 Lineup over-under 50 Brian Dozier 54 Kurt Suzuki 56 Joe Mauer 60 Josh Willingham 64 Oswaldo Arcia 68 Jason Kubel 70 Trevor Plouffe 73 Aaron Hicks 75 Pedro Florimon 77 Josmil Pinto 78 Losing kids 81 $1000 burger 85 Aaron’s iphone 94 Tinder Click here to view the article

Sponsored by Ticket King [/hr]Download attachment: Darvish_Yu_Standing_US_720.jpg We're off by one crummy day. Such is the fickle nature of the baseball gods. Memorial Day has always been a special day for baseball in Minnesota, even before the Twins arrived. When the Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints were the dueling minor league clubs in town, they would schedule home-and-away doubleheaders on Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day. Some of those games (and the ensuing brawls) were legendary. Monday's Memorial Day game at Target Field had a chance for that kind of excitement. The kids are off of school, the weekend chores are already done (right?) and they're even giving away 10,000 Kingsford grill tongs at the game. All that was needed was that premier pitching matchup.... And it's happening one day late. Tuesday night the Twins will send out developing ace Phil Hughes to face the Rangers perennial ace Yu Darvish. That, I'm afraid, is this series' hot ticket. If, like me, you're taking the family to see the Memorial Day game today, you might want to opt for bleacher seats in right field for a home run ball; Kevin Correia is squaring off against Rangers pitcher Nick Tepesch. Overview The truth is, you almost can't go wrong this week. Summer is truly here, and other than some chances of a thunderstorm, it looks gorgeous. It also helps that the word most used to describe the Rangers lately is "reeling." Or maybe"decimated." Both describe the recent news that slugging first baseman Prince Fielder will likely miss the rest of the year due to surgery on a herniated disk in his neck. It might not surprise you that the 275-pound Fielder has some spinal issues, and that might explain the significant dip in his stats over the last year-and-a-half. But Fielder has also been the model of durability, playing 547 consecutive games before being sidelined last week. It's rare that one would describe Fielder as a "tip" instead of an "iceberg," but in this case, it's true. His injury just adds to the plethora of injuries the Rangers have been facing. Three starting pitchers are hurt. Most of the infield has been out at one time or another. Four relievers are out, three of them possibly for the rest of the year. It's not hard to see the impact. Texas enters the series ranked 11th in runs scored in the American League and 11th in runs against. Their 25-25 record is still respectable, but it hides that they started the season 14-8, and have been sliding ever since. Even the GM, John Daniels, sounds a little defeated when he says quotes like "I haven’t ever been a part of anything like this — never across the board to this degree. You try to plan all offseason to give yourself depth. ... But there is a limit to how many premium innings you can replace, and how many premium offensive players you can replace. That sort of quote just breeds overconfidence, but the Rangers still stole a series from the Tigers this weekend, scoring a dozen runs in each of the last two games. The Twins have an opportunity to kick the Rangers while they’re down, and before they head to Yankee Stadium for a weekend series. Best take advantage of it. Yu vs Hughes At the very least, Rangers fans can look forward to every fifth day. Like Felix Hernandez last weekend, the Twins will get to face one of the very best pitchers in the American League on Tuesday night. Darvish sits near the top of the AL leaderboard in nearly every pitching category: ERA (2.35 - 3rd), strikeouts (73- 7th), WHIP (1.11 - 7th) and even WAR (2.4 - 2nd). Whether you like it or not,the Twins are getting to face a lot of very good pitchers this year. Let's not forget about Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, James Shields, Chris Sale and Justin Masterson, all in the AL Central. But even among the best, Darvish can lay claim to being a King of the Hill. An interesting question is whether we're watching a Twins pitcher grow into that elite class. Phil Hughes has been demonstrating the same promise he showed as a minor league prospect now that he has escaped from New York. Hughes started slowly; in his first three starts he only went five innings in each and gave up four earned runs in each. But over his last six starts, check out his stats next to Darvish’s last six: [TABLE=width: 250] [/TD] [TD]Hughes Darvish ERA 1.60 3.20 IP 39.1 39.1 WHIP 1.017 1.246 W-L 5-0 3-2 K 30 48 BB 1 15 HR 2 3 [/TABLE] Clearly, this is selective sampling. And Hughes may want to continue this trend for more than a month before we start comparing him to the best in the game. But there is hope that Tuesday night’s game could be close to a competitive affair. That’s not something that we could say too often over the last three years when a pitcher like Darvish came to town. [/hr]As one might expect, tickets are getting scarce for Target Field now that the weather is heating up. Now is when having a local ticket broker on your side makes a lot of sense. Monday's game still has good lower level seats available, but the cheap seats are gone. Believe it or not, the Darvish/Hughes duel still has some $6 tickets available. Wednesday night's prices look inviting, too. Finally, Thursday's Twins day game tickets are so good you can't afford TO go to work. All are an even better deal if you use the promo code DAILYDOUBLE, which will get you 10% off and supports Twins Daily. Whatever your needs, your local ticket supplier,Ticket King, can help. Click here to view the article

~~~ sponsored by Ticket King ~~~ Download attachment: Machado_Manny_Showalter_US_720.jpg OK, you can come out now. The bad weather has (mostly) passed. It’s going to be 60 degrees, one of the best young players in baseball will be visiting and Mike Pelfrey will not be pitching. That sounds like a pretty fair weekend to grab some great seats at Target Field. In fact, it sounds like a pretty fair weekend to all the Twins Daily guys, who will be attending Saturday’s game. (Say “Hi.”) Slogging Along It’s been a sluggish start for the Orioles who entered May with a .500 record, the first time they’ve started that “poorly” over the last three years. By May 1st last year, they were already five games over .500, just like they were the previous year. But in the AL East, it hasn’t hurt them. They are in second place in the packed division because the entire division is sluggish. As of Thursday, not a single team in the division had scored as many runs as their opponents. While the records for the teams vary between four games over to five games under .500, the run differential of all the teams are between -6 and -12. None have been good; none have been terrible. Download attachment: AL East stats.jpg Slippage The same can be said about the Orioles pitching and hitting. Neither is necessarily a dire problem, but neither is quite as effective as they were last year. Last year’s offense ranked fourth in the American League with 4.6 runs per game; this year’s lineup has slipped to seventh (4.5 runs per game). Last year’s pitching was sixth overall (4.38 runs against per game) while this year’s arms have slipped to ninth (4.75 runs per game.) And remember: last year’s Orioles didn’t make the playoffs. The team got a mix of good news and bad news this week offensively. The positive news was the activation of Manny Machado on Thursday. The 21-year-old is a rising superstar in major league baseball, a mix of power, speed, defense and youth that might be the most coveted third baseman in baseball right now. However, on Sunday, slugger Chris Davis was placed on the DL with an oblique injury. Davis crushed 53 home runs last year, including one at Target Field. Barring a postponed game, he won’t go yard here this year; this is the Orioles only scheduled trip to Minnesota. Sloppy Starts Download attachment: Nishioka_Tsuyoshi_Error_US_720.jpg Baltimore’s offense could use a boost because a few players in the lineup are really struggling. Twins fans might be surprised to hear that one of them is JJ Hardy, who the Twins traded to the Orioles three years ago to make room for (cringe) Tsuyoshi Nishioka. (And if you think I mentioned Nishi just so I could include this picture on the right, you could not be more correct. Let's admire it again, shall we?) Anyway, Hardy's hitting just .242 with no home runs and a .258 on-base percentage. He’s also been battling a hamstring strain that kept him out of the lineup last week. He should play this weekend, but hopefully his turnaround will wait until after the Orioles leave town. Ditto that sentiment for pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez. Jimenez was signed to a $50M contract this offseason to help anchor the top of the rotation. He’s been an anchor alright: 0-4 with a 6.59 ERA entering Friday’s night’s start versus Ricky Nolasco. Jimenez’s control has been brutal this year, walking seventeen batters in 27 innings. That’s also led to relatively early exits: he has yet to get more than six innings of outs. ~~~ If you would like to see Manny Machado up close, I see row 2 and row 3 seats right be third base available for Friday’s game. Saturday you can bake in the sun for the whole game in Section 125. And on Sunday, I’d consider the $17 tickets in Section 240, so I can watch the Twins for two hours and then retire to the nearby Town Ball Tavern to watch the Wild at 3:00. All are an even better deal if you use the promo code DAILYDOUBLE, which will get you 10% off and supports Twins Daily. Whatever your needs, your local ticket supplier, Ticket King, can help.~~~ Click here to view the article

Download attachment: tumblr_l8eexgsw341qa1id2o1_500.jpg I’m having trouble getting into the second round of the playoffs. I don’t really want either the Yankees or the Tigers to make the World Series, which means I can’t even root for the American League. The official team of The Voice Of Reason™ - the Phillies – is also out for the first time in years. But mostly I’m ready for the next act. The offseason. Oddly, I don’t think I’ve looked forward to an offseason this much in years. For starters, it’ll be nice to see what a Terry Ryan can do when he’s in charge right from the beginning. Also, there is at least a 50-50 chance that we see a long-time Twin player traded. We get to (hopefully) watch a rotation be built via the deepest free agent starting pitching market in several years. There is even a Twins prospect already strutting his stuff in the Arizona Fall League. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] (I’ll admit, there are also some personal reasons I’m excited for the offseason too. At the top of the list is Twins Daily. Being able to count on a Twins story every day, and being able to jump read and discuss all the rumors and implications of trades and signings is going to be awesome. Second is Gleeman and the Geek. I really enjoyed getting together with Aaron Gleeman on a weekly basis, throw back some beers and talk baseball for a few hours.) So let’s look ahead to what we can expect…. October 24th – The release of the TwinsCentric Offseason Handbook. (Also, the 1st game of the World Series.) The End of the World Series – Eligible players can file to become free agents. (Also, when the TwinsCentric Offseason Handbook 30% discount expires.) Sixth day after the World Series – Free agent market opens. Teams can sign free agents. December 3-6 – Baseball’s Winter Meetings, which means plenty of trade talk. December 6 – Rule 5 Draft January 25-27 – Twins Fest If this year is anything like last year, expect Terry Ryan to move fairly quickly. Last year he had almost everything wrapped up by Christmas, signing… Jamey Carroll on November 16thRyan Doumit on November 23rd Matt Capps on December 6th Josh Willingham on December 15th Jason Marquis on December 22nd Joel Zumaya on January 18th There is a man after my own heart. Not only does he make moves fast, but he has the decency to do so on a weekly basis so I can spread them out over winter’s worth of podcasts. Click here to view the article

The Big Picture The Pirates are in first place at the All-Star Break. Oops - hold on. I didn’t say that with the right emphasis. Let me try again. The PIRATES are in FIRST F*$%ING PLACE at the ALL-STAR BREAK.Download attachment: 1306360928-87.jpg Wha? How? That’s a fair question, considering their offense has scored 345 runs this year, 21st in the majors. The answer is that their pitching and defense has been outstanding, resulting in the 5th best team ERA in the league. Why They Will Trade With The Twins For starters, they’re “in a buying mode” according to their manager. And they’re looking for offense. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] You can almost throw a dart and find a spot in the lineup that needs improving. That said, the Pirates leadoff spot has been terrible this year, with a combined .228 batting average and .272 on-base percentage. That OBP ranks 29th in the major leagues. Recently they turned leadoff duties to a guy they just picked up off of waivers. It’s that bad. Denard Span probably wouldn’t play center field in Pittsburgh because their center fielder, Andrew McCutcheon, is having an enormous year. However, left fielder Jose Tabata was just sent down to AAA. He’ll be back because he signed a six-year deal with the Pirates, but there is also right field, where Twins castoff Garret Jones is platooning with …well, its not clear day-to-day that there is a good option for the other half of that platoon. Or that Jones wouldn’t just be better served off the bench. So Span fills a desperate need, improves the Pirates corner outfield defense and does so long-term at a reasonable salary, which is always a factor for the financially strapped Steel City. Why They Won’t Trade With the Twins Lately, they’ve been tied to two much bigger names: Justin Upton of the Diamondbacks and Carlos Quentin of the Padres. But the Pirates don’t seem to match up well with the Diamondbacks, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. As for Quentin, the Pirates would probably love to have him bat behind McCutcheon to protect the budding superstar, but Quentin is also a free agent at the end of the year. And there are several other teams in on Quentin, including the Reds who the Pirates are trying to fend off. So it might come down to which the Pirates prefer – big and gone or steady and staying. Or Span could be a defensive move if the Reds get Quentin. Or the Pirates could decide one doesn’t preclude the other. It shouldn’t. This lineup needs plenty of help. Conclusion The trade market may sort itself out very late this year as teams take as much time as they can to see if they are “in it” or not. Of the possible fits for the Pirates, Denard Span is near the top of the list. And as you can see below, the Pirates have plenty of pitching. There are reasons for optimism here. Trade Targets Jameson Taillon – RHP He’s a 20-year-old blue chip starting pitching prospect whose numbers (High A - 4.05 ERA and 73K in 86.2 IP) don’t reflect his stuff. Pittsburgh have instructed him to command his fastball rather than striking out hitters with his breaking ball. I’m sure the Twins will ask about him. I doubt they’ll get him, unless the bidding turns fierce. Jeff Locke – LHP Locke had a similar year to Liam Hendriks in 2011. He showed a lot of promise in AA, made just five starts in AAA and then was promoted as a September callup. Not too surprisingly, he was disappointing. This year the Pirates are stashing the 24-year-old left-hander in AAA to be used as major league filler and he’s having a very good year: 2.92 ERA, 84K and 23 BB in 95.2 IP. The looks to me like a middle-of-the-rotation arm that could be ready as soon as the fall, which is a nice fit for the Twins. (But then I still feel the same way about Hendriks.) Thanks to Jeremy Nygaard for this next name... Kyle McPherson – RHP He’s 24, and started the year late in AA because of a shoulder problem, but there is no reason to think he’ll stay there long. He dominated AA the second half of last year en route to being the Bucs minor league pitcher of the year. He’s got a good strikeout rate and excellent control – exactly the kind of guy the Twins would target. Baseball America ranked him as the 6th best prospect in the Pirates system this year. Luis Heredia – RHP A 6’ 6”, 18-year-old, high-upside (his fastball is already in the low 90s) pitcher who is still several years away from the majors and will be limited to rookie ball this year. Stetson Allie – RHP Here’s a wild card – emphasis on “wild.” The 21-year-old right-hander was the Bucs second round pick just a year ago. Unfortunately, his 100 mph fastball doesn’t do anyone any good if it can’t find the plate. Recently, it got bad enough that they demoted him to rookie ball - and had him switch to third base. If the Twins think they can “fix” him, like they did Alex Wimmers, maybe he could be an interesting secondary piece to fill out a trade package. Click here to view the article

"We have holes. And some of it is pitching, and some of it is not. There are other areas we need to address." - Minnesota Twins GM Terry Ryan as reported by Phil Mackey Download attachment: 6.jpg The Twins rotation currently ranks 29th in the majors in ERA and 28th in innings pitched. But Ryan is right – they aren’t the only sore spot that will need to be addressed this offseason. The decision to promote and play Tsuyoshi Nishioka at second base highlights one such area. The Twins rank 29th in the majors in OPS(On Base Plus Slugging) from that position. Even if their best option, Jamey Carroll, had played there the entire season, his OPS would only rank 25th. Similarly, the shortstop position ranks 27th overall. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The Twins are likely to use the rest of the year to further evaluate this offseason’s priorities. They might start be looking at where each position ranks offensively versus the rest of the league: [TABLE=width: 244] [/TD][TD=align: center]OPS [TD=align: center]MLB Rank[/TD] Left Field[TD=align: center]938[/TD] [TD=align: center]2[/TD] Catcher[TD=align: center]822[/TD] [TD=align: center]5[/TD] Designated Hitter[TD=align: center]845[/TD] [TD=align: center]8[/TD] Third Base[TD=align: center]765[/TD] [TD=align: center]11[/TD] Center Field[TD=align: center]718[/TD] [TD=align: center]17[/TD] First Base[TD=align: center]749[/TD] [TD=align: center]19[/TD] Right Field[TD=align: center]692[/TD] [TD=align: center]25[/TD] Shortstop[TD=align: center]575[/TD] [TD=align: center]27[/TD] Second Base[TD=align: center]571[/TD] [TD=align: center]29[/TD] [/TABLE] 2B – Let’s start with the worst and get more optimistic. Most of the damage has been done by Alexi Casilla whose overall OPS is 580, which is one hundred points below his OPS last year and 50 points below his career OPS. He’ll likely get better, if he hasn’t already played himself out of the picture. (Again.) SS – Either you believe Brian Dozier will get better or you don’t. I think he will. He certainly needs to. RF – Even if Ben Revere had all the at-bats here, his 738 OPS would only rank 22nd. However, according to Ultimate Zone Rating, he has also saved another 10 runs with his glove. Using WAR, which tries to include defensive value, he ranks 12th overall. 1B – Parmelee (667 OPS) and Mauer (752 OPS) are responsible for about 40% of the at-bats here. CF – The Twins have only given 15 at-bats to players other than Revere and Denard Span in center field. Those players have gone 0 for 15, which drags down the number about 20 points. 3B – Imagine where the Twins would rank if Danny Valencia and his 522 OPS hadn’t eaten up about 1/3 of the at-bats this season. DH – The at-bats have been split four ways, but Ryan Doumit gets most of the credit. His OPS is 939 as a designated hitter, just 766 as a catcher. C – Not that the Twins two-headed catching monster isn’t working well. They only rank behind St. Louis (Yadier Molina), Milwaukee ( Jonathan LuCroy), San Francisco (Buster Posey) and Philadelphia (CHOOOOCH!) LF – Speaking of monsters, ladies and gentlemen, Josh Willingham, version 2012. Certainly, the Twins pitching has been an issue. But Ryan is correct to not overlook the uneven production from the lineup, too. Click here to view the article

Let's see if Twins Daily can do some good.... Download attachment: Fifteens-Glen3.jpg Next Sunday, the 12th, Twins pitcher Glen Perkins and his wife Alisha are organizing a 5K in downtown Minneapolis to raise money for the fight against cyctis fibrosis (CF). The whole Bonnes family is joining in, so if you would like to run with us at our glacial (or at your own) pace, sign up at their site and then let me know in the comments below and we'll work out a meeting place. For those who can't make it, please consider sponsoring my run. This is the first time the Twins Daily community has tried something like this, but I suspect that with so many members contributing daily to the site, they'll also contribute to such a good cause. My goal is just $150, and I'd rather have 150 members contribute $1 than five contribute $30 so know that whatever you can throw in is appreciated. Please Sponsor John's Cystic Fibrosis Run Here is some more information... [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The Race The race starts at 8 AM at the Metrodome, winds around downtown and ends at Target Field, and "along the course you will learn about Glen's journey from playing college games at the Metrodome for the U of MN to MLB games at Target field. You will climb the ladder up from rookie ball to the big leagues just like this Minnesotan did." You can pick up your race packet that morning starting at 7AM or on Friday or Saturday in St. Paul. The Swag You also get a medal at the end if you finish. You also get a t-shirt and tickets to Sunday's game vs the Rays, too. Finally, if you dress up like a Twins player (wear a jersey?) there will be items signed by Minnesota Twins players given away randomly at the finish line. The Disease Cystic fibrosis is a devastating genetic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system. More than ten million Americans are symptomless carriers of the defective CF gene. It is passed down through families and causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs, digestive tract, and other areas of the body. It is one of the most common chronic lung diseases in children and young adults. It is a life-threatening disorder. So let's see what we can do. If you can spare a couple of clicks and a few dollars, please sponsor my run next Sunday. If you can make it yourself, even better. Thank you in advance for all your generosity and involvement. I continue to believe that Twins Daily is a community that can do outstanding things. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: 300px-IMG_0635.JPG We interrupt your fun for a gentle reminder…. Twins Daily prides itself on the community of fans it serves, and understands that the forums, comment sections and blogs are central to their participation and the health of the site. We strive for civil, insightful and passionate discourse that welcomes and challenges all our members and readers. As such, comments of this nature are not allowed: 1. Personal attacks or insults towards other commenters, the post author, journalists, teams, players, members of baseball organizations or agents. (You can be critical, but not personal.) 2. Inappropriate language, including swearing and related censor bypass attempts, lewdness, and crude terms for body parts, bodily functions, and physical acts. Overall, we don’t want any language that a parent would not want their kid to see. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] 3. Juvenile comments or extensive use of text message-type spelling. 4. Copying entire stories from elsewhere on the internet. 5. Comments about how you're sick of this topic or it's not newsworthy. 6. No inappropriate avatars or images are allowed. 7. Anything else we deem bad for business. 8. Spam. (This will result in an immediate and permanent ban.) 9. Alternate (alt) accounts. If you attempt to bypass a moderator ban by creating a second account or if you create a second account whose sole purpose is to incite an argument, all accounts (and your IP address) will be permanently banned from Twins Daily. We invite members to notify us if any comments violate these guidelines so we can take appropriate action, rather than police it (or worse, angrily react) in the comments section. Each comment has a small icon shaped like a triangle with an exclamation point in it. By clicking on this icon, community members can easily notify us of possible violations. Breaking the rules will result in deleted posts and bans. Attempts to circumvent bans will results in all accounts being permanently banned (along with their IP address). Both Twins Daily’s founders and the community consider this policy to be a fundamental responsibility for keeping this community healthy and active. This post will remain visible on the "About Twins Daily" page so it is always accessible. In addition, we’ll feature this story on a semi-regular basis as a reminder. Thank you for your understanding and commitment. Now, back to play time…. Click here to view the article

Brian Dozier turns 25 next Tuesday. Download attachment: red-fancy-xmas-gifts-800-805667.jpg That’s not young for a prospect. This spring he barely made the cut of Baseball America’s top 10 Twins prospects. Above him on that list were Chris Parmelee (who is hitting .203), Liam Hendriks (who is being demoted to AAA-Rochester) and Joe Benson (who was demoted yesterday to AA-New Britain yesterday). He has never hit even double-digits home runs in his minor league career. Prior to this year, he was never a fulltime shortstop in the minors. Anticipation, especially prolonged anticipation, can really skew expectations. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Dozier has been talked about since the middle of last year by manager Ron Gardenhire. At the time, Gardenhire was also desperate for anything resembling a competent middle infielder. If you’re especially optimistic about Dozier’s debut this week, that prolonged anticipation is likely the cause, more so than any promise he’s shown in the minor leagues. Along with his other challenges, he will likely be dealing with inflated expectations. But there may be a bigger challenge. Dozier is likely being rushed. After spending three years navigating through rookie ball, A-ball and AA-ball, he’s had all of a month at AAA. He hasn’t posted particularly impressive numbers at that level: .276 average, one home run and two stolen bases, though he’s shown good control of the strike zone. And it’s not like he’s caught fire recently – he’s hit about .200 over the last several weeks after a hot start. Finally, promoting Dozier now is an odd move financially. Major League clubs will often wait until the first couple of weeks in June to promote a prospect so he doesn’t reach arbitration a year early as a “Super 2”. What does that mean? The short answer is that if Dozier succeeds as a starting shortstop, the Twins will need to pay him a million dollars extra or more per year from 2015 through 2018, just so they could call him up a few weeks early this year. So why now? Initially, the answer seems obvious: in a lost season, why not play the youngsters? But if that’s the philosophy, then why is Liam Hendriks being sent back to Rochester? Why can’t Trevor Plouffe find his way into the lineup? And why not give Dozier another four weeks in Rochester to regain his stroke and lower his future compensation? Instead, the answer seems to be the opposite. Dozier is coming up because things are getting desperate. He’s a lottery ticket, or maybe a more apt analogy would be that he’s a Christmas present that the manager (and maybe the organization) is anxious to open. That’s fun, but it’s worth noting just how often that has backfired on the Twins in the last year. The fast-rising Hendriks made all of nine pitching starts in AAA, didn’t have much success and then struggled in the majors until he was demoted again. Ben Revere spent just a few weeks in AAA where he had trouble getting on base, did the same in extended time in the majors, and is back in Rochester. Chris Parmelee, after a strong September and spring training, skipped Rochester entirely and now has 20 strikeouts and four walks. One might think that with that recent track record, an organization might be a little more conservative in their callups. Instead, the Twins are rushing a mid-level prospect to the majors to help save the season. I hope they (and Dozier) enjoy the moment. But it would sure be nice if this present wasn’t returned. Click here to view the article

The Big Picture Stop me if this sounds familiar. A team with championship aspirations faces a slew of injuries to their best players. They find themselves last in their division but hope that the players return will boost them back into contention. At the trade deadline they must make a tough decision: stick to the plan or write off a season in a championship era whose window could be closing. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Download attachment: fjFbTCy9.jpg Yep - the Phillies are having the year the Twins had last year. But instead of a fan base of Minnesota stoics, they play in the City of Brotherly Love. You can imagine how pleasant that is. Why They Will Trade With The Twins The Phillies are walking a delicate line. Despite injuries to superstar second baseman Chase Utley, first baseman Ryan Howard and ace pitcher Roy Halladay, the Philadelphia is only six games under .500 and just 5.5 games back of the wild card. They hope to have Utley back on Wednesday, Howard beginning a rehab assignment this week and Halladay returning in the middle of July. If they get healthy, and the Phils simply tread water for the next month, it will be awfully hard for them to give up on the season. Traditionally, the Phillies have had trouble finding good right-handed hitting to offset Utley and Howard’s left-handed bats. But they traded for Hunter Pence last year and he has an 803 OPS and catcher Carlos Ruiz has a (unsustainable) 978 OPS to lead the team. Add in that Juan Pierre is playing left field (and hitting .322) and it’s hard to see a fit for Josh Willingham, though in previous years he would’ve been an obvious fit. But what if Howard can’t come back strong, or if this injury (which has repeatedly defied expectations) looks like it might take more time than just this season to heal? If so, Justin Morneau would be a hell of a replacement for him, and it’s not like his $14 million salary would be much of a problem for the phree-spending Phils. Other options include Ryan Doumit if Carlos Ruiz' ribcage strain becomes a problem. The Phillies setup men – primarily Chad Qualls and Antonio Bastardo - have both been unreliable. If Halladay can’t recover, history suggests that the Phils aren’t afraid to chase high-ceiling pitchers like Liriano. Finally, there is one Twins player that could be interesting even if the Phils decide to pack it in this year. Their center fielder Shane Victorino will be a free agent at the end of the year and the Phillies don’t know if they’ll be able to re-sign him. Denard Span might be of interest as he’s under contract through 2015. Why They Won’t Trade With The Twins The most likely scenario is that the Phils do exactly what the Twins did last year: stand pat. It’s hard to give up on a year when expectations were so high and it’s easy to blame injuries. Plus, management can trot out the great cliché that they’re trading for three superstars just by getting healthy. Conclusion They’re worth watching, to be sure. The Phils have been very aggressive around the trade deadline in acquiring talent, and they haven’t been afraid to trade away significant prospects for the right pieces. But outside of Morneau as a Howard replacement, there doesn’t look like a great fit here. ~~~ Possible Trade Targets Domonic Brown - OF You may have heard this name a the trade deadline in 2011. Or 2010. Or 2009. And now he’s 24. The Phillies have had several opportunities to trust him with a corner outfield spot, and it seems likely they’re never going to have room for him, even though he’s only had 246 AB in the majors. He hasn’t actually done much in the minors in 2011 or 2012 and he’s had trouble staying health (including being out right now with some strained knee ligaments). But did I mention that he’s just 24, and that two years ago he was posting a combine 980 OPS in AA and AAA? Trevor May – RHP May is a possible front of the rotation starter, topping most Phillies prospect lists. But he isn’t an elite prospect because of his struggles with his control. You might expect those issues (4.6 BB/9) to be further exposed as he climbed up the ladder and sure enough, he’s posting a 4.94 ERA this year at AA, albeit with fewer walks. Short of a big deal, he likely isn’t available, but he’s one of several options – Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America both have multiple pitchers in their Top 5 rankings of Phils prospects. Freddy Galvis - SS Galvis made the Phils roster out of spring training, starting at second base, courtesy of Utley’s injury. His year went downhill from there in a hurry. First, he hit .226. Then he fractured his back. And then he was suspended 50 days for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. His main asset is a terrific glove. It isn’t clear he has enough offense to be a regular starter – his career OBP in the minors is .292 – and the steroid suspension further clouds that issue. But he’s just 22 years old and has been relatively young for most of his levels, so a case can be made that there is still plenty of untapped potential. Please add your thoughts and trade ideas (and other names the Twins could pursue) in the comments below! Click here to view the article

Sponsored by Ticket King [/hr]Download attachment: Abreu_Jose_Back_US_720.jpg Traditionally, a White Sox visit to Minnesota would be just what the doctor ordered for a struggling Twins team. Hopefully it will be again. The Twins are limping home after a 3-6 road trip and on a five-game losing streak, after losing in particularly gut-wrenching fashion on Thursday. But now they’re back in Target Field, playing on a warm summer weekend (with minimal rain forecast for most of the games) against a White Sox team they haven’t seen since early, frigid April. The White Sox are doing their best to help our boys out. For the second weekend in a row, the Twins are facing a division rival without seeing the opponent’s best pitcher. White Sox ace Chris Sale, who has a 2.20 ERA (that is not a typo), threw six innings yesterday so despite a four-game series, the Twins will miss him. (Or more accurately, it’s likely Sale that misses the Twins: he has a career record of 5-1 with an ERA of 2.42 against them in six games.) The Hot Ticket Remember last year when 27-year-old Andrew Albers blanked the Royals for 8.1 innings in his major league debut? That wasn’t just fun because Albers did well. It was fun because Albers wasn’t supposed to be here; there was almost no chance of him finding his way to The Show before the season started. The Twins are hoping to have lighting strike again on Thursday. Yohan Pino will be making his major league debut as a 30-year-old. Pino is also not supposed to be here, but the Venezuelan has been toiling between AA and AAA since 2007. This year is actually his second go-round with the Twins. He was a pitcher in their farm system until he was 25, when he was traded for Carl Pavano shortly after the trade deadline in 2009. Since then he has served time with Cleveland, Toronto and Cincinnati before returning to the Twins this year. His numbers in Rochester have been outstanding, no matter which ones you like. The traditionalists like the 9-1 record and the 1.92 ERA. Stats guys might be more impressed with 61 K in 61 innings, and a nearly 4:1 K:BB rate. Those numbers are even more impressive considering his “stuff” is considered less than pedestrian. He relies on a mid-80s fastball and a killer changeup. So you have the chance to see something special on Thursday: a guy who shouldn’t be here, with stuff that nobody thinks should play in the majors, could finish writing a dream story in his major league opener. Alternately, everyone could be right and he and his dreams could be crushed. You want drama? Go to a ballgame. A Legal Cuban Import The White Sox starting pitching ranks just above the Twins in ERA (27th overall) but their offense has been reborn since last year’s 29th ranked finish. This year they rank 8th, and a big part of that is their new slugging first baseman Jose Abreu. Abreu was signed out of Cuba this last offseason to a six-year, $68M contract, which is no small commitment to an unknown. It was the largest-ever contract given to a Cuban free agent – and it’s looking like a bargain. Abreu already has 19 home runs despite having an injury in May, and is slugging .596. Hitting right-handed, he’s actually been better against that side than against southpaws, and has shown no signs of slowing down as the league adjusts to him. The White Sox have essentially replaced Paul Konerko with Jose Abreu and not missed a beat, which is terrible news for the Twins, who haven’t had that kind of consistent power in the middle of their lineup since Justin Morneau’s relatively short-lived peak years. This will be Abreu’s first visit to Target Field. I wish I could say you better see him now of you might miss him, but he looks like he’s around to stay. Target Field Speaking of Target Field, in a pregame update with reporters last week, Twins GM Terry Ryan said that it looks like Target Field isn’t depressing home runs like it was in its opening year. A quick glance at the statistics shows he’s right. The Twins and their opponents have hit 56 home runs in games at Target Field. On the road they have hit 57. That’s a little misleading. The Twins have only played 32 of their first 69 games at home. But Target Field is certainly not depressing home runs the way it was early in its existence. [/hr]Tickets look tight for Thursday night's game, but there are 10 tickets right behind the Twins dugout if you want to welcome Johan Pino to The Show. Friday your ticketcould also get you a Harmon Killebrew 1965 All-Star Game bobblehead. If you want a closer view of Jose Abreu, there are lots of seats down the right field line on Saturday. And if you would rather get a home run ball from him, there are six sections in left field with some availability on Sunday. All are an even better deal if you use the promo code DAILYDOUBLE, which will get you 10% off and supports Twins Daily. Whatever your needs, your local ticket supplier, Ticket King, can help. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Craps_shoot_600_321.jpg In the latest Gleeman and the Geek podcast, Aaron Gleeman and I argued, as we are apt to do. Among the questions raised was one that stuck with me: what is the goal of baseball’s regular season? Certainly, it is to make the playoffs, but beyond that, is there an advantage to posting a high win total? The answer to that question influences the path one thinks the Twins should travel this offseason. The AL Central champion had only 88 wins last year, the lowest amount for any division. It is not unlikely that could happen again next year. It is not unreasonable to suggest that even coming off of a 66 win season, by piecing together even a mediocre rotation, the Twins could improve to a mid-80s win team. But is that good enough? Or does a team need to win 90+ games to be taken seriously as a champion? To be honest, I have no idea. Aaron and I have gone back and forth on it throughout the year and again on Sunday night. On the one hand, it makes sense that a better team (one with more wins) would be favored versus a worse team. (Vegas certainly thinks so.) Furthermore, over several games, that advantage would could be more pronounced. On the other hand, it’s often said that playoffs are random. There are certainly enough counterexamples of underdogs who have held parades at the end of October, including this year. It occurred to me today that this is something we can test, and it may provide a pretty definitive answer. Best of all, it isn’t that difficult to do. Here’s how…. (Warning: high level stats discussion coming.) One sabrmetric tool used a LOT is called a correlation test. A correlation test compares two sequenced sets of data and sees what kind of relationships the two sets of data have. It is by using correlation tests that sabremetrics can definitively say that OBP or SLG is more important than BA, because it more closely correlates with the runs a team score. It is also by a correlation test the we know that xFIP is a slightly better predictor of future ERA than ERA is. We’re going to use it to compare wins in the regular season to series wins in the playoffs. Here is a link to the data. It’ll consist of all the playoff teams from 1996 through 2012, along with their playoff series wins and also their regular season wins.* We’ll run a correlation test on those two sets of numbers, and the test will return a value somewhere between -1 and 1: The closer to 1, the more regular season wins translates to playoffs success. For instance, comparing temperatures in Celsius to temperatures in Fahrenheit would have a correlation of 1. Not only does one go up when one goes up, but it goes up or down proportionally the same.The closer to -1, then regular season wins would have a negative correlation to playoff series wins. For instance, comparing how much I cumulatively spend to my checking balance would have a correlation of -1. The higher the amount I spend, the more my checking balance goes down.The closer to 0, the more regular season wins and playoff series wins just aren’t related. If I were to compare the total wins of a team to the numbers of migratory monarch butterflies for each city, I would expect the number to be close to 0. The two sets of data mean nothing to each other.So what do you think it will be? Take your guess, before I do the work. I’m guessing a fairly small correlation, somewhere around .25, which would be similar to the correlation that SABR folks use to conclude that pitchers can’t control if balls in play are hits. (Off to enter data and do the math….) Wow. The answer is actually quite a bit lower than that. The answer is just .07. Winning more games - being a 95 game winner versus an 85 game winner – affords a team almost no advantage in terms of advancing in the playoffs. If I wanted to drive home just how random this is (and I had a little more patience) I could compare the series wins to other ridiculous pieces of data for each team and find one that had a higher correlation. I’d venture to bet that one of these four items would have a higher correlation: team batting average, team errors, average height, or total letters in the names of all the players on 25-man roster. That’s how ridiculously low this correlation is. To me, that means that success in MLB isn’t qualitative - it’s binary. Either a team makes the playoffs, and thus has a pretty even chance to win a championship, or it doesn’t. To give extra credit for wins is akin to giving extra credit for something like team batting average or how many ex-Twins they have – you might find it interesting, but that doesn’t mean it is important. It also suggests that if you think the Twins can win the AL Central next year, then a complete overhaul might not be in order. A team does not need to be razed and rebuilt and win 95 games to position themselves to be a champion. Indeed, it earns them almost nothing at all. They just need to be good enough to get into the postseason, even if it’s in a poor division. ~~~ *(Three geek notes about the data I used. First, I did all the teams since the wild card began. Second, I skipped 1995 because they didn’t play 162 games, and since I was using win total instead of win percentage, that would have produced skewed data. And finally, for 2012, I only used the two wild card teams who won their playoff wild card game.) Click here to view the article

Download attachment: tv-baseball1.jpg Can you come out and play? We're having a last-minute meetup to watch the Twins-Rangers game at 7:00 PM this Thursday night at Park Tavern in St. Louis Park. John, The Voice of Reason, Nick, Parker, Brock (I think), Aaron Gleeman, Lindsay Guentzel and a bunch of other luminaries will all be there. So show up, wear some Twins gear and join us for general merriment. We would love to meet you. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Morneau_Justin_600_321.JPG It was the second big trade of the offseason for the Minnesota Twins, and the second concrete indicator to the league and to fans that General Manager Terry Ryan is looking beyond 2013. Indeed, it was the second time in which a trade likely made the Twins worse for the 2013, instead of better. Which is odd, because this is a great trade. Ben Revere has plenty of value, but was not without question marks and could be replaceable as early as the second half of this year. The pitchers the Twins received in return, Vance Worley and Trevor May, are also not without question marks, but they’re exactly what the Twins needed to get – young, cheap pitching that can contribute in the majors. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]But the Twins offseason has seemingly pivoted since the TwinsCentric interview with Terry Ryan. If the focus for the organization is not on 2013, then what does the future hold for Justin Morneau, who becomes a free agent following this season? Let’s see have a looks at the pros and cons with which the front office might be wrestling… Pro: 2013 is toast…. Con: ….but you might still want people to come to the ballpark. As starting pitching free agents are snapped up, the Twins are increasingly unlikely to compete in 2013. But the Twins are also just starting their fourth year in their new stadium, have the All-Star Game coming in 2014, and are looking to rebound soon after with the prospects that are brimming from their minor leagues. It’s always a lot easier to retain customers than to get new ones. Morneau, besides serving as a veteran presence in the clubhouse for new players, can bridge that competitive gap for fans, especially those casual fans who might be more cynical about the future of the team. It doesn’t hurt that he and his wife are well-liked and active in the community. He is more than just another bat – he’s an ambassador at an especially fragile time for the organization. Pro: He can be replaced by Chris Parmelee…. Con: ….but who replaces Chris Parmelee? The Twins have a left-handed first baseman in the wings, Chris Parmelee, who launched himself up the prospect charts with a monster season in AAA-Rochester last year. But with both Denard Span and Revere gone, Parmelee already has a spot waiting for him in the outfield. What’s more, the prospect mostly likely to be ready in 2013, Aaron Hicks, is already earmarked to move into center field. If Parmelee moves to first, that means filling his spot with either Joe Benson, who had a terrible 2012 in Rochester and AA-New Britain, or Oswaldo Arcia, who is only a half year removed from High A-Fort Myers. Both COULD get a shot, and both might if the Twins look at 2013 as a year to invest in youngsters. But neither is a great bet to thrive real soon. Pro: Teams are looking for big bats… Con: ….but will be looking for big bats at the trade deadline, too. There is really only one good first baseman on the free agent market – Adam LaRoche – and he seems to have no lack of suitors. One of them, the Orioles, has already been linked to Morneau in trade rumors, for whatever that is worth. The Twins told reporters not to believe everything they hear, but they said that about trading Revere, too. There is a market for Morneau. But the market could be there in July, too. At that point, he’ll hopefully have four more healthy months behind him. If he hits like he did the second half of last year, he’ll have a track record to generate plenty of interest. (Hell, if that’s the case, the Twins might even think of extending him.) Finally, he won’t cost his new team $14M, but closer to $5M, making him that much more attractive. Hmm… speaking of money….. Pro: He’s owed $14M this season…. Con: ….but the Twins aren’t going to spend it anyway…. Pro: ….unless they use it to pay Morneau on his new team. The biggest single reason to consider trading Morneau this offseason was to free up $14M to spend on starting pitching. Even if the Twins traded Morneau for nothing, the $14M would have been enough to get a top flight pitcher, like Dan Haren, who signed a one-year deal this week for less than that. But now, that $14M likely isn’t leaving the Twins coffers. Frontline starting pitching isn’t just expensive – it’s expensive long-term. Ryan fears giving players contracts that are one or two years longer than is sane, and it appears that will be the case for the majority of top pitchers remaining. At this point, it’s debatable if the Twins are going to spend the $20-30M we thought they would. An extra $14M isn’t going to help. But on the third hand, this would free up the Twins to make the kind of trade that (to my knowledge) they have NEVER done. They could trade away a big contract, but pick up a chunk of the cost for an excellent prospect. The Orioles might not be willing to give up much for a $14M Morneau. The might give up a tremendous amount for a $10M Morneau. So which way do you go? To me, the path isn’t clear, but the answer is. The answer? “He’s available, for the right price.” That’s what the answer has been for the better part of six months now, and the price has been too high. With the Twins new focus on 2014 and beyond, I won’t be surprised if some new customers don’t stop by to see just how available Morneau might be. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Terry Ryan_600-321.jpg In our TwinsCentric Offseason Handbook, we’re including a transcript from a 45-minute meeting "State of the Twins" interview with Terry Ryan. As you can imagine, an 8000-word interview covers a lot of topics, including: the strengths of the new coaching staff, Joe Mauer’s future at catcher, additional offseason priorities beyond starting pitching, how Twins approach waiver wire or minor league free agents, thoughts on the state of the Twins minor leagues, his evaluation of the Twins middle infield,[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] whether Trevor Plouffe can stay at third base, how the Twins will fit Chris Parmelee into the lineup, and of course how the Twins will try to fix their starting rotation. One encouraging note, at least in my opinion, is that Ryan seems to be open to adding free agent pitchers who are a few cuts above Jason Marquis, who the Twins signed to a one-year, $3M. TWINSCENTRIC: As you look at the pitchers who are likely to become free agents or are scheduled to be free agents, do you think it’s a deep free agency class? TERRY RYAN: Thin. TWINSCENTRIC: You think it’s thin? TERRY RYAN: Sure. You tell me who you’re thinking about. I can’t comment on who is out there. There’s a few guys out there who are pretty darn good. TWINSCENTRIC: Are you likely to be chasing some players who are pretty darn good? TERRY RYAN: We better. TWINSCENTRIC: So you’re looking to add a top of the rotation, maybe not a #1 guy, but maybe a #2 guy or a top half of the rotation? TERRY RYAN: We’ll see. We’ll figure out how many years he’s looking for and how many dollars they want to get. TWINSCENTRIC: Are you willing to give multi-year deals to pitchers? TERRY RYAN: You aren’t going to get a pitcher unless you give a multi-year deal. So who qualifies as a “pretty darn good” pitcher? Despite Ryan’s characterization of the market as thin, there are no shortage of candidate that could be viewed as an asset to a rotation. Beyond ace Zach Greinke, the following will all likely get a contract in excess of $20 million dollars this offseason: Jake Peavy, Ryan Dempster, Dan Haren, Anibal Sanchez, Edwin Jackson, and Kyle Lohse. Another half dozen could get contracts in excess of $10 million: Hideki Kuroda, Brandon McCarthy, Hisashi Iwakuma, Ervin Santana, Joe Saunders, Jeremy Guthrie and Shaun Marcum. That’s fourteen pitchers, most of whom would raise the eyebrows of even the most skeptical Twins fan. However, Ryan was also hesitant to commit to a payroll number and again emphasized that the Twins rotation woes won’t be solved solely through free agency. Does this mean the Twins may only have the funds to make one major signing and look to fill the other spots via other means? We likely won’t need to wait too long to find out. Ryan hinted that he plans to be aggressive with players that they think are going to be a good fit. That is consistent with the Twins approach last offseason, when players like Ryan Doumit and Jamey Carroll were signed even though there were still players in higher demand available. ~~~ After this last season, don't you deserve to enjoy the offseason? The full interview (as well as profiles of all the above pitchers) will be available in the TwinsCentric Offseason Handbook, which comes out tomorrow. You can still get it at its presale discount price through the World Series. And if you’re still on the fence, you can download a sample here. Click here to view the article

Fueled by interviews with assistant GM Rob Antony and manager Ron Gardenhire, yesterday became the best day of the year for Twins spring training news. The result? Almost every projected lineup you saw this offseason was probably wrong. Instead, you’ll like see a whole lot of Josh Willingham playing left field, Ryan Doumit playing right field, Justin Morneau as the designated hitter and Chris Parmelee playing first base. Download attachment: chris1.jpg The shakeup happens twelve days before the regular season starts and about a week before the Twins break camp. Like any reorg, it resulted in some good days and bad days: [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Good Day: Parmelee Not only does it look like Parmelee made the major league team, it looks like he is in position to be a regular without ever having played a game at AAA. That speaks highly of the organization’s confidence in him, confidence which is fueled by his second half in New Britain, a tremendous September call-up and a spring training where he has continued to show power. But make no mistake, this plan hinges on Parmelee being a productive major league player. That is an open question. Parmelee has averaged just twelve home runs and a .266 batting average over his six years in he minors. That’s not nearly enough production for a first base prospect. If he falls flat, this plan looks a hell of a lot worse than any of those offseason projections. That’s because this next guy is suddenly a guy without a position. Bad Day: Ben Revere When Gardenhire announced yesterday that Willingham was going to be his everyday left fielder and Span his everyday center fielder, Revere was left without a position. Revere’s defensive strength is his range and his weakness is his arm. In Target Field that makes him a fantastic left fielder and a decent center fielder. But putting him in Target Field’s tiny right field negates his biggest strength and exposes his biggest weakness. The Twins say he’s competing for right field, but were he to win it, Gardenhire would look borderline insane. They also say he’s competing for a roster spot, but without him on the roster, there isn’t a backup center fielder, unless the Twins decide to go with Darin Mastroianni. I almost hope they do, because I think Revere needs to get everyday at-bats if he’s going to develop into the water bug he could become. Good Day: Gardenhire Though He may not feel like it, because filling out the lineup sheet just got a lot more complicated. But provided PFOHF (Parmelee doesn’t fall on his face), Gardy’s roster has a ton of flexibility and offensive options to protect his two biggest guns, Morneau and Joe Mauer. With Doumit on the roster, Mauer can play less at catcher, but still be in the lineup at first or DH. Morneau can take the spot that Mauer doesn’t and Parmelee can add his offense in right field. If Morneau needs a day off, Parmelee or Doumit can DH and Trevor Plouffe can play first base and punish a southpaw or two. Gardenhire also essentially replaces a bottom of the order bat (Revere) with a middle-of-the-order bat (Parmelee) for most games. My best guess on the lineup now looks like this: Span (LH) Jamey Carroll (RH) Mauer (LH) Morneau (LH) Willingham (RH) Parmelee/Doumit (LH) Danny Valencia (RH) Doumit/Parmelee (LH) Alexi Casilla (SH) If Doumit or Parmelee is hitting eighth, that’s a deep lineup. Congrats, Ron. Bad Day: The Pitching Staff The Twins offense just went from one of the better defensive outfields in the majors to one of the worst. That’s how big of an impact Revere’s range could have had. And if PFOHF then there is a real mess. Either Gardenhire has to move Willingham back to right field or the staff has to deal with a bad outfield AND know that it has been designed in almost the worst possible way. Bad Day: Nearly everyone hoping for a bench spot For a four-man bench, it appears three spots are taken: Luke Hughes & Plouffe (both of whom are useful and out of options) and Revere. That leaves one spot for either another catcher or a utility guy. Both could be classified as luxuries. The third catcher position doesn’t seem to be as critical now that we know Morneau will likely be seeing most of the at-bats at DH. If Doumit was the DH, and Mauer got hurt during a game, then they Twins would have had to have the pitcher bat if Doumit moved to catcher. That seems less likely now. And the utility infielder role was mostly about backing up the shortstop, but the Twins do have two other players, Plouffe and Casilla, who can play shortstop. If Casilla plays short then Hughes, who is having a monster spring, could play second base. And while the Twins claim they want Plouffe to stay away from the middle infield, Parmelee’s emergence likely means less platoon opportunities for Plouffe. Maybe he needs to be looking at a super-utility role. Click here to view the article

Paragon Sports Marketing Agency tweeted today that the Minnesota Twins are promoting Matt Carson from AAA-Rochester to complete the roster moves they started after yesterday’s afternoon game. Carson, who has primarily played right field in Rochester, was likely added to provide outfield depth due to the day-to-day status of outfielders Denard Span and Ben Revere. Span hurt his shoulder in a game on Sunday and had not played since. Revere hurt his ankle in yesterday’s game. Download attachment: Carson-Matt.jpg This is not Carson’s first time in the majors. The 31-year-old had exactly 100 at-bats with the A’s in 2009 and 2010, hitting .200. This year with Rochester, he was hitting .277 with a 785 OPS, including 14 HR, 102 strikeouts and 33 walks. In his career in AAA, he has hit .280 with a .500 slugging percentage. According to Seth Stohs, he is often lauded by for his attitude, work effort and class, as well as his play on the field. The Twins chose to promote Carson over first base/right field prospect Chris Parmelee, who is tearing up AAA with a .348 batting average and 15 home runs in just 181 at-bats. This likely indicates the Twins feel that Span and Revere are healthy enough to be playing regularly soon. It is likely better for Parmelee, who is just 24 ear old, to develop by playing every day in AAA than only occasionally with the Twins. However, Parmelee could still be an option soon. The Twins have been slow to place their players on the Disabled List this season and it’s certainly possible they could do so with Span retroactively. Also, after September 1st, rosters can expand to up to 40 players. It is likely Parmelee would be promoted at that time. Yesterday, the Twins demoted pitchers Luis Perdomo and Jeff Manship to Rochester and reactivated pitcher Anthony Swarzak from the disabled list. An additional move was anticipated to fill out the 25-man roster. The delay was likely to give the Twins an extra day to evaluate the status of Revere and Span and their ability to play regularly. Also, the Twins will need to make a subsequent 40 man roster move as Pedro Florimon grabbed the final spot when he was called up on Wednesday. Matt Capps could go to the 60 Day DL, or someone will need to be DFAd. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: HIcks_Aaron_Stealing_US_720.jpg Aaron and John talk about the Twins' surprisingly decent first quarter of the season, management calling out Aaron Hicks through the media, Brian Dozier being one of the league's best players, Oswaldo Arcia going back to the minors, Chris Colabello turning back into a pumpkin, Kurt Suzuki proving to be a fine investment, and whether the Twins have something in Eduardo Escobar. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: prasa.jpg Welcome to the Twins Daily Newsroom! We're providing the RSS feeds below as a service to our members, but it would be much appreciated if you use it to help the community generate discussion. If you find a story you like, head over to the forums and check to see if anyone else has added a story. If not, kick off the discussion! [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Here's the template we suggest: 1. Write up a one or two sentence summary and where it's from. 2. Pull the most controversial or interesting part of the story. 3. Give your opinion on it and 4. Provide the URL so people can click on it themselves. (Here's an example: http://twinsdaily.co...ks-too?p=229036) Congratulations - now YOU'RE an ink-stained wretch! ~~~ Click for "Twins Daily Newsroom Feed".Powered by RSS Feed Informer Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Morneau_uspw_6519778_600_321.jpg According to the Washington Post, the only legitimately good first baseman on the free agent market, Adam LaRoche, is in talks to re-sign with the Nationals. In the 2013 Offseason Handbook, I think the next best option we found was Carlos Lee, who slugged just .365 (and is 36 years old.) What’s more, there aren’t a lot of good options on the free agent market to move to first base. For instance, Kevin Youkilis is available at third base, but if he can play third base (and it looks like he can) he’ll be signed as a third baseman. The last couple of years, the market has not been so thin. Last year, of course, was epically good, with Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder leading the charge. 2010 had Paul Konerko, but also Aubrey Huff, LaRoche, Carlos Pena and Lance Berkman. 2009 was thin, but 2008 had Mark Teixeira leading the class. It’s been years since we had a free agent first baseman sign for less than $6M, but that will almost certainly happen if LaRoche returns to the Nationals. This presents a unique opportunity to the Twins, if they choose to embrace it. In our 45-minute interview with Terry Ryan for the Offseason Handbook, he stated that 1B/OF Chris Parmelee will get every opportunity to play every day. While manager Ron Gardenhire says he’s satisfied with Parmelee’s defense in right field, the rest of the organization has shown no such endorsement. Indeed, in AAA-Rochester this year, he didn’t play a single game there. Moving incumbent Justin Morneau would not only make space for Parmelee, but free up $14 million to purchase starting pitching in a free agent market thick with it. Even if the Twins received nothing in return, that’s enough money to sign any starter except Zach Greinke. Ask yourself, would you trade Morneau for Jake Peavy, Dan Haren, or Anibal Sanchez? If you would, it makes sense to trade away Morneau for nothing more than a bag of bricks. Fortunately, for the Twins, that might not be necessary. There are not shortage of teams that struggled mightily at first base last year. SEVEN teams had an OPS lower less than 700 last year, and even the Rangers first basemen hit just .251/.301/.399. For a team struggling to fill major needs on a lower budget, the thin first base market is a godsend. If the Twins can find the will, there is almost certainly a way to bounce back quickly. Click here to view the article

Sponsored by Switch My Trip Download attachment: Correia_Kevin_Pitching_US_720.jpg May arrived three days late, but Saturday The Sun found clouds it could occasionally hurdle. The gloom passed and Twins Territory awoke from abad dream, one filled with wind and rain and Dodgers and losing baseball stacked on top of losing baseball on top of desperate roster moves and game-winning line drives that die an early death, suffocated by leather. But on Saturday The Sun shone, warming the fans who sat down the third base line, which was almost all of them, because SUN. It warmed Twins bats and fueled the ongoing transformation of Trevor Caterpillar to Butterfly Plouffe, who sprung forth and staked the Twins to an early 1-0 lead in a very unbutterfly-like way, because butterflies don't know what a gapper is, let alone how to hit one. The Twins are looking to switch things around this year. Every week, Metro Transit recognizes a Twins player who successfully switched the outcome of a game for the better. The Sun softened Brian Dozier's glove and quickened his twitchy wrists which offered a sacrifice in the form of white horsehide, launched to the upper facing of the left field bleachers. And Dozier's sacrifice pleased The Sun. The Sun relieved the bilateral weakness from Joe Mauer's manhood, empowering all 6-feet 3-inches of man muscles to slug an opposite field home run that delivered Dozier and Pedro Florimon and a lead incapable of dissipation. But mostly The Sun shone brightest on Kevin Correia, who reflected it and dazzled Orioles batters for seven innings. It warmed his hands and it strengthened his grip and his pitches played with The Sun, darting away from lefties bats...Download attachment: Correia v lefies.png and even further away from right-handers. Download attachment: Correia vs righties.png The Sun brought back memories of last year, when Correia was younger and effective and a bargain and – dare I say – the staff leader. And it dissolved last Friday’s nightmare of artillery shots bouncing off outfield walls and an overmatched Chris Colabello in right field, running for his life. And it melted the 7.33 ERA over a full point - still a bad dream but a dream in which Correia still has a major league career, which is not an unpleasant slumber. And the Twins won and spring returned and Byron Buxton was healthy again and reporting to the home of The Sun, Fort Myers. For who better to entrust with his future? And who better to provide our Big Switch? Why fight traffic and parking? Say Switch My Trip for the next Twins game. Metro Transit can provide you and your whole family a train ride to the game. Planning your trip is as easy as clicking on this link. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: jeans_butt400x300.jpg Aaron and John talk about going to Twins spring training in Florida, Byron Buxton and the first batch of Twins cuts, drunken women debating the quality of their butts, Johan Santana signing with the Orioles, hanging out at Mason's Restaurant downtown, housewarming gifts, singing bartenders, the Miguel Sano aftermath, giving shoutouts, and Twitter tabs.You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Click here to view the article