John Bonnes

I won't know what our family's summer schedule looks like until some of the kids camps get picked. Once I do, I'll be looking long and hard at the Territory Train schedule.

Um, he's a catcher right? Catchers occasionally need to dig throws out of the dirt right? And have pretty decent hand-eye coordination? I gotta say, this sounds like a load of BS. If I was Doumit, I'd rather play left field than first base, too, because he doesn't hit well enough to be a highly paid first baseman, but might to be a regular left fielder. If, on the other hand, he's relegated to fulltime DH, then he'll REALLY get an idea of what a limited free agent market looks like.

I don't think Slowey is sensitive the way Span is. Prideful, maybe. And there is nothing wrong with prideful. But in Slowey's case the vibe became "I'm right and you all are wrong." Which isn't to say that Slowey was never right and the organization was - I think there were some mistakes on both sides. But it's awfully hard to have a decent working relationship once the lines are drawn like that.

When to the Twins announce who is going to be on each team? I need to make a weekend trip to Beloit a priority this year.

Finally, as to where Revere is going to end up, I agree he's closer to the Tyner-Pierre path than someone like Puckett or even Ichiro. If he's at the top of that range, he's very valuable. If he's at the bottom of that range, he's a defensively gifted fourth outfielder and helluva pinch runner. I'll go a step further: I think Tyner was undervalued. Sabrmetric guys overreacted to how much overreaction there was about his batting average and steals - and ended up underrating him. Back in November of 2007 I'd had about enough of it and wrote:

To go back to the original idea I gotta say, it might the Revere is fractionally more valuable in center field, but I think it's really fractional. And given that his arm is so weak, any advantage is almost completely lost. It sure seems like a wash to me. I wouldn't have a lot of hope thta Revere's arm is going to get better over this offseason or any offseason - this isn't a new thing. He's had years to make his arm stronger, it's always been a knock, and I've heard it's related to an old football injury. It is what it is. Left field suits him well. I'll also say this about moving Span: anyone who thinks that is going to go seamlessly is seeing something a lot different than I. Span is a sensitive, prideful guy. His reaction to the possible trade rumors last year was pretty telling, including leaving the team out of nowhere to recover. To me, the risk of that affecting him is certainly not worth the fractional benefit (if any) of swapping Revere and Span. Finally, I gotta think that if Revere is healthy and has his head on straight (which I've heard various takes on) he'll at the very least be the strong side of the platoon in left field. He'll get plenty of time.

During that stretch, the AL East had three pretty crummy teams. But I'll say this: when Twins fans are talking about the AL East, they're really talking about the Yankees. The Twins have done pretty well, if memory serves against the Red Sox, and the recent struggles against some of the other teams are recent. It's been the Yankees that have frustrated Twins fans, obviously for the last decade, but it goes back a lot longer than that. Even old-timers attribute that 1965 season to one-hit: Harmon's game winning home run the day before the all-star break against the Yankees. It really is unfortunate that of all the teams to struggle against, Gardy has the Yankees, because Minnesotan's are really insecure about that damn team.

I met him at his Billiard tournament, but the moment I'll remember is Game 6. We were on fire just because his catch had proved so critical. When he went yard, we were going crazy. Best $65 I ever spent were for those nosebleeds.

Gutierrez isn't following that same path, but I'd love to see him turn the corner. If so, he could be the breakout guy. Jared Burton is another promising name. OOH! How about Jeff Manship? That's my pick. Based on nothing at all. I'm going with Manship.

Watching the game (or at least kind of watching the game) I didn't think Marquis was the problem. He was getting ground balls, at least early in the inning, which is what he is supposed to do. The fielding was bad. That ball down the line was catchable. Dozier really looked limited on the ball that went by him - so limited I wondered if he was hurt. They ran successfully on Mauer. There was that throw from Morneau to Dozier later than went into left field. And of course Doumit failing to get a simple ground ball. I thought MArquis was the least of the problems.

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Chris Jaffe at Hardball Times has put together a story about Don Minchner's Career Highlights. You can find it at: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/don-mincher-career-highlights/

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]264[/ATTACH]Aaron Gleeman and the Twins Geek discuss Zumaya's injury, rank JR Towles chances of unseating Drew Butera, watch the Twins first televised spring training game, take questions at the Wild Boar and finally unveil John's original "Beauty & The Beast" theme song. Here are: the podcasts the rss feed if you want to subscribe and the podcast on iTunes (where you can also subscribe and leave reviews).

I'll add a recommendation. Get up to Duluth & visit Wade stadium for a Northwoods League game. It's a big brick ballpark. Crummy neighborhood but great old ballpark.

...and don't say "all of them." SFG is the one I want to see the most. Safeco is 2nd. After those, I'd go with the entire Grapefruit League.

It's also worth noting that the 3 guys we're most worried about all had decent games. Span was 2-3 & Mauer & Morneau drove in the 1st 2 runs.

I gotta say, I'm a little taken aback by how much ink and breath I'm seeing wasted about why Josh Willingham shouldn't be playing right field. The primary argument seems to be: he hasn't played there much, so he probably shouldn't. C'mon. There are a couple of differences, to be sure. But tell me which of these are dealbreakers? - Right fielders generally need stronger arms, because they need to make a further throw to third base. - The ball curves toward the line a bit more, because it does so when being hit by right-handers. Left-fielders see the same thing when a left-handed batter hits the ball, but there are fewer left-handed hitters. - The size of the field can vary a lot depending on the park. In Target Field, left field is much larger. - Obviously, in Target Field, the ball can come off the wall in right field in tormenting ways. - There are more balls hit to left field. Unless Willingham has a crappy arm, which is highly doubtful considering he used to play catcher with the Marlins, there is no reason for him to be in left field. Even if he does, it can't be worse than Revere's. 1. If he's out there w Revere and Span, he has nowhere near their range and should be in right field. Even for those who think Revere should play center (I don't, so long as Span is healthy), why the hell would you want Willingham in left field over Span? 2. If he's out there w Plouffe, I guess it's debatable, since we don't know exactly how good Plouffe will be. If Plouffe is really bad, then sure, move Willingham back, especially because Plouffe should have a decent arm. I expect Plouffe to be pretty decent out there. 3. If Span is out, then Revere is in center, which is just like #2. If Willingham is Ok with this, and he sounds like he is, why screw around with it? -

I'm a little confused about the whole "right field" thing and agree that Souhan is likely reading too much into that. He seems to really value defense out there. I can't quite figure out what he's saying most time he talks about that. I'll be very surprised if Plouffe is the every day left fielder. I won't be surprised if he platoons with Revere, though that would make Plouffe the short side guy.

Gardenhire also started a lineup that looks a lot like what we expected for Opening Day - except that Plouffe was playing left field. It looks like he is at least thinking about a real platoon there.

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