jimbo92107

Reminds me of an idea I had for a video game: Get That Cat! You drive a monster truck slowly through a residential neighborhood. Suddenly a cat runs across the street in front of you - game on! Cat flies though backyards, alleys, etc. You crash through everything in your monster truck, trying to... Get That Cat! For some reason I never got the funding for that project...

Man, Buxton looks totally overmatched against Gio Gonzalez. Swinging at junk, missing by a foot.

Heh heh, everything is proceeding just as I had foreseen...

I think that's the third time I've seen Castro toss the ball out of his own hand on the transfer. He did it a few games ago, and twice today. Odd.

Haley's got a lot to like: Works fast, live arm, throws strikes, downward plane. His stuff isn't great, but it plays up because of his style.

I keep seeing that Dozier is a below average 2B, but I think he makes some pretty nifty plays.

Player: Okay skipper, what's our hitting approach today? Molitor: You know all the patience you guys showed over the first few games? Well, we were just kidding. I want you to go out there today and swing at everything, no matter what junk Gonzalez throws you. Player: Right skip. I'll go tell the guys!

Notice Mejia actually got his form back as soon as he had to hold a runner on first. Why? He'd been rushing it. Allen should have told him after Frasier to slow down the tempo.

Sano did that rundown so badly, I can hardly tell you. Daddy taught me in 4th grade how to do rundowns. Ball high, wrist back, run hard, stick your fingers at the receiver's eyes. One throw only, or you're doing it wrong. Both fielders close the trap.

Kepler is looking very good at the plate. His pinpoint balance is back, and his hands look quick. I'm predicting a power show from Kepler over the next couple weeks. When a guy like that starts nailing liners to the fence, he's getting ready to pop a few over.

Berrios got destroyed last season. For the moment at least, Hughes is still holding his own, and Hughes's fastball seems decent. I figure the Twins will do the swap you're suggesting sometime during the season, maybe a couple months in. Possibly earlier, if Hughes starts having problems with the parts that got sewed up over the winter.

I think Molitor is trying to take a little pressure off Sano and Buxton, so they can keep a cool head at the plate. Both guys got swing-happy last season. So far Sano looks reasonably disciplined, while Buxton is back to looking almost clueless. As I said before, Byron Buxton still sees the pitcher as a threat. He needs to reverse that psychology, see himself as the cat, and the pitcher as the mouse he is toying with. It's a fundamental shift, and when it happens, it will happen very quickly. One day he will show up and look like he's in charge, like he really believes it. On that day Buxton will start doing in games what he does in batting practice. BTW, good write-up, BK! :-)

Based on what I've seen so far, I would go Dozier Polanco Sano Kepler Mauer Castro Rosario Escobar- DH Buxton Dozier insists on batting 1, otherwise I'd have Polanco leading off, with Doz at 2.

I can almost see the new hitting coach pointing to Grossman and say, "Do it like that guy, but hit a little better."

This kid sounds great. Great is good enough for me.

"5. Privacy – My wife told me that she didn’t want me posting her private details publicly anymore. Not on Twins Daily, Facebook, Twitter or anything like that… She said that it wasn’t anyone else’s business. I love her and respect her so I told her that I wouldn’t, although I suspect that her hemorrhoids are making her a little cranky." Sorry to hear about your wife's hemorrhoids, RB. I sympathize, my own explosive diarrhea episodes happen at the most inopportune times, like last Sunday night at karaoke. I just can't hit those Steve Perry high notes without embarrassing myself...

Low T's got nothing on low IQ. Still, it's just a number. A very low, depressing number...sniff...

Duffey dominates again.

A lot of encouraging signs, especially from the hitters. Polanco sure does look like a major league ballplayer, doesn't he? Skills and smarts. Sano is showing much better plate discipline, as is everybody except Buxton. Even Eager Eddie has taken a couple walks. Kepler looks like he's starting to hit the ball square on the screws...last season that was prelude to a power display a couple games later. Dozier hasn't gotten hot yet, but he could bust out anytime. Everybody is hitting except...Buxton, and strangely enough, I'm not worried about Buxton. He'll hit as soon as he realizes that he's the cat, and the pitcher is the mouse. Oh, and thank goodness for Jason Castro. All he's done is stabilize the catcher position, take a ton of walks and knock in key runs.

If you get a chance, go back and watch that 6-run 7th inning again. Notice how the Twins did just about everything right to take advantage of KC's pitching troubles. First, Jorge Polanco's scratch hit. Doesn't that kid just look like a good young baseball player? Then Kepler's excellent strike zone discipline, waiting for a good pitch to bunt, followed by an excellent bunt and great hustle down the line. Then up steps Eddie Rosario, and he does exactly what we love: He saw the SS not in position to execute the wheel play, so Eddie punches a bunt right to Moustakas, handing him an out at first, but now the Twins have runners on 2nd and 3rd. All along, they did the smart thing, and executed just right. Walk to Dozier, and then Robbie Grossman does what he does best...draw a walk to score Polanco. Other than Buxton, who is still flailing early in the season, just about everybody did his part to keep advancing runners. Even the new catcher came up with a clutch hit to drive in two runs. More than just a win, this game looked like a statement. This team seems far more competent than last season. They read situations better, and execute correctly. Great outfield defense, and the middle infield looks solid. Joe Mauer at 1st base could be one of the better fielders at that position now. If only the pitching staff holds up...

Hughes does have one major factor in his favor: He has always had excellent command. The same basic pitching mechanics that have allowed him to have a crazy-low walk percentage should also allow him to tinker successfully with new pitches. That said, it's his spring velocity that gives me the most hope. I was worried that Hughes would be stuck around 89 mph with his heater, a speed that won't allow him to beat major league hitters. 91 or 92 mph is much more workable. It provides the upper end that makes his off-speed pitches more effective. His first couple starts should be very interesting.

I see the 40-man logic, but I still don't like it. Park is coming off a very strong spring showing. His bat looks hot, and this Twins team can use all the runs it can find. Hopefully something will happen that allows Park back into the lineup. Park's got pop!

I'm a big Eddie fan, so I have to temper my enthusiasm. I think Seth has hit the exact middle of the range of Rosario's performance this season. "Eddie Rosario: 516 at-bats, .274/.306/.452 (.749), 29 doubles, 6 triples, 17 home runs." Of those numbers, I suspect Rosario can beat 6 triples easily. His gap power is excellent, and he can spray the ball into corners, getting difficult bounces. Eddie has shown that he has quick recognition of weakness when an outfielder is off balance, misjudging a ball or bobbling a ball, and his speed is sufficient for adding an extra base. I have seen him bluff slowing down to 2nd base several times, then turn on the jets to reach 3rd. 29 doubles actually may be a tad high, partly because I expect Eddie to push for 3rd base whenever it seems possible, meaning fewer doubles and a few more times gunned down at 3rd. This brings me to the reason I love Eddie Rosario: He loves the game of baseball. Not just the attention and the money, but the contest to see who can find a way to win. Rosario looks for the little things, like an outfielder that lags just a bit when fielding, or a pitcher that isn't paying attention to the runner. He sees those things and looks to spring traps on people that aren't fully engaged. For this reason it's difficult to capture what Rosario represents with a string of statistics. He may "swing at everything" most of the time, but then, at some key point in a game...maybe he won't. Rosario's reputation as a free swinger is well known among pitchers, who may decide to dangle a high heater or an outside curve at a crucial moment, 3 and 2 with a couple runners on, tie game. Rosario knows this, and he's always looking to take advantage... What will he do? Eddie Rosario knows the game well enough to operate at the level of an expert poker player. He masks his own intentions with an impassive poker face, while reading his opponents for any signs of their intentions. This is so cool, I can hardly tell you. I love Eddie Rosario. He's a real player.

Bear in mind also that the minor league pitchers I listed were the YOUNGEST on the AA and AAA pitching staffs. Assuming some of the older minor leaguers are more than filler, some of those guys... AAA older guys: Yohan Pino P R R 6' 2" 190 12-26-1983 Active No Nick Greenwood P R L 6' 1" 180 09-28-1987 Active No Buddy Boshers P L L 6' 3" 205 05-09-1988 Active Yes Nick Tepesch P R R 6' 4" 240 10-12-1988 Active No Alex Wimmers P L R 6' 2" 215 11-01-1988 Active No Seth Rosin P R R 6' 6" 265 11-02-1988 Active No Matt Tracy P L L 6' 3" 215 11-26-1988 Active No Drew Rucinski P R R 6' 2" 190 12-30-1988 Active No Nik Turley P L L 6' 4" 195 09-11-1989 Active No David Hurlbut P L L 6' 3" 221 11-24-1989 Active No Jason Wheeler P L L 6' 6" 255 10-27-1990 Active No and AA older guys: Raul Fernandez P R R 6' 2" 180 06-22-1990 Active No Luke Bard P R R 6' 3" 202 11-13-1990 Active No Zack Jones P R R 6' 1" 195 12-04-1990 Active No Trevor Hildenberger P R R 6' 2" 211 12-15-1990 Active No Todd Van Steensel P R R 6' 1" 215 01-14-1991 Active No Mason Melotakis P R L 6' 2" 220 06-28-1991 Active Yes Brandon Peterson P R R 6' 1" 190 09-23-1991 Active No Ryan Eades P R R 6' 2" 200 12-15-1991 Active No Paul LeBlanc P R R 6' 4" 185 03-07-1992 Active No Aaron Slegers P R R 6' 10" 245 09-04-1992 Active No ...some of these guys could be pitching on the Twins instead of the 30-something retreads the team is using now. What are they, chopped liver? Cubed beef? Beef chuck for chili? Chicken fried steak? Chorizo? Bacon ends? Dang, now I'm getting hungry...

Another thing about Breslow is his high intelligence. I'm pretty sure he could seamlessly transition from pitcher to pitching coach at the pro level. A guy like that should be considered for a position in the Twins organization when he finally hangs 'em up.