jimbo92107

Still good enough to get the job done. Good job Glenn Perkins, good game Twinks.

I've been noticing that Perk hasn't been throwing his hard slider lately. Oblique strain? Sore elbow? Now he threw a slider at 84...nicked the outside corner for a pop up. But he used to throw those sliders almost a third of the time, and he used to go hard in on righties.

Oh Eduardo Nunez, so much talent, but then those inexplicable lapses of concentration... sigh.

I didn't exactly call Plouffe's homer, but I did say out loud to myself, "You getting ready to hammer one, Trevor?" Something about that quiet stalking look on his face...

Wow, haven't seen the Twins do a squeeze play in ages. Is Nunez our SS for the remainder of the season? He's looking really good lately.

I went to bar yesterday to watch the Vikings play the Bucs. Skooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollll!!! But I digress. Back at home I found out that Tyler Duffey had pitched a relative gem over six innings. Had to see that, so I went to mlb.com and watched mostly just the half innings where Duffey pitched. It was very revealing. I had no idea that Duffey was a curve ball specialist. Nothing in the Twins pipeline bio snippet said anything about it. The tool list said, "Curveball: 50." Really????? Duffey has the best curveball for a Twins pitcher that I've seen since Bert Blyleven, who for some inane reason kept insisting that Duffey was throwing a slider. Not a curve? Not a vertical drop? Are you kidding? And a rating of 50? Tyler Duffey is a freeeking curveball ARTIST. He is fundamentally a backwards pitcher, using that jug-handle hook to set up everything else, including his fastball, which by the way is not just a 91 mph nothing pitch. In fact, Duffey has a pretty good assortment of non-curve pitches, and he's able to spot them around the zone pretty darn well. Mainly he threw curves and heat, drawing a huge number of whiffs from a team that supposed to have a seriously good bunch of hitters. But here's the thing: Batters weren't merely whiffing; they were missing the ball by half a foot. That's what Corey Kluber was doing to Twins batters one game earlier. Duffey may actually have the same potential to dominate that Kluber does. On a good night, of course. Obviously teams will build up a book on Duffey and try to adjust. Maybe they'll learn to lay off the pitches he had diving down out of the zone. Maybe. Thing is, it could be a fast ball riding the same plane, I saw him do that, too. Indians hitters clearly were having a tough time reading pitches out of Duffey's hand. That said, if we're going to be honest about how much of a weapon Duffey's curve is, I'd rate it a 70. Not on speed, like a fast ball, but on effectiveness. He can do just about anything with that pitch. Huge late break, and he can bounce it six inches behind the plate, nip the right corner, or anywhere else. I'm assuming that teams will try to lay off it in the future. What will Duffey do then? I will definitely want to see. Tyler Duffey's got the weapons to be a much better pitcher than I realized. What will he look like once the last remaining rookie nerves are gone? Better than last night?

Eddie Rosario, Byron Buxton, Aaron Hicks and Max Kepler will be the four-man rotation in the outfield for the next few years. Kepler brings a high-average gap power bat to the lineup, and I'll assume he will learn how to get better breaks on fly balls. He'll also be able to platoon 1B with Joe Mauer, so there should be a good balance of playing time for everybody. I'm worried that Oswaldo Arcia may be suffering from a lingering hip problem. That could keep him from getting back to the majors. Meanwhile, Kennys Vargas is a big,strong man that won't remain much longer in the minors. Somebody has to bat behind Miguel Sano.

So Max Kepler has not yet learned to get an early break on balls by knowing the situation, the pitcher, the hitter, and timing his break accordingly. It's one of the last things a young outfielder learns. Aaron Hicks spoke about getting tips on that art from Torii Hunter this season. Could be that one of the best reasons to bring back Hunter is to pass along some of that knowledge to Kepler, too. He's a smart young man, and he has improved on every aspect of his game where he's had coaching.

I have a thing about being wrong...I don't like it. However, what's worse than being wrong is staying wrong. That's why I'd rather be corrected by someone, thank them for saving me from staying wrong, then move on. Life is stuffed full of misconceptions and bad information. Frankly, it's remarkable that more of us don't blow ourselves up at the gas station. We all knew Aaron Hicks was a gifted athlete. That's why it was so frustrating watching him go through the hard process of developing a swing that could unleash his power. Finally he has found that swing, and I don't think we will ever see him stray far from what he's doing now. His lefty swing will continue to develop more power as he learns to coil, compress and explode around with his rear hip. He's getting it, and more reps will make it even better. I don't think anybody here has been right about all his guesses. Good to keep in mind that most players don't make it in the pros. You can be a damn good ballplayer and never get out of the minors.

I'm dealing with severe shoulder impingement in my right arm these days, so I know that joint injuries can linger a long time. Hopefully Arcia has had access to professional rehab that is much better than I've been getting from the VA. Even so, it could take a while.

Is there a better name in the Twins minor league system than Kerby Camacho?

Ervin Santana is a smooth pitcher. He's having some rough spots right now, but this guy is too good to stay down for long. I would not dump this guy, certainly not right now.

With younger, cheaper system guys of equal or better talent, why keep playing these games with retread relievers? It makes no sense, especially in a transition year like this. I want to see Tonkin and every other option in AAA before I see Blaine Boyer again. Boyer was surprisingly good the first half; now we need to see what we've got moving forward.

I'm pretty confident in what I saw of Tyler Duffey against the Blue Jays. His stuff is very good, although his command was destroyed by the pressure of his first start and facing a killer first six for the Jays. Otherwise, Duffey is a big, strong guy built a lot like Trevor May. Good tilt on his breaking stuff, downward plane on his fastball, mostly keeps the ball low in the zone. All good signs. I expect him to be what he was in the minors, a horse.

A lot of Arcia's power came from his strong hip turn, so a lingering hip injury would explain Oswaldo Arcia's predicament pretty well. Even if it's "healed up," he could be swinging the bat with a less vigorous hip turn for fear of re-injuring it, which would change his swing, killing his batting average and power. Dang, what a lousy way to spend this transition year, stuck in AAA nursing a bad hip. Arcia could wind up going to some other team, then become Nick Swisher 2.0.

That's actually the best way to go. It's a merit based system, not a scholarship for Joe Mauer. His experiment with trying to pull more balls with more power failed because he didn't make the kind of changes Aaron Hicks did to gain power. Mauer needs to incorporate the same kick, bat wave and forward stride to unleash more power from his swing. Working to Mauer's advantage is his hip turn, which has always been excellent. Now he needs to add a Cuban Leg Kick and a Dominican Bat Wave, the way Hicks has done. If he actually incorporated those things into his swing, he could start hitting the ball just as hard as Hicks has been doing lately. With Mauer's hip turn, he might hit the ball even harder. I talked earlier about why Mauer's attempt to develop pull power failed. His style was to keep his weight back and slash across the inside of the ball, generating remarkable power while meeting the ball as late as possible. Unfortunately, that approach does not work well for trying to pull the ball because the barrel doesn't carry far through the zone if you try to roll your wrists early to pull it. What happens instead is the bat head rises over the top of the ball, producing a pulled grounder. Ironically, if Mauer tried to stay inside those balls instead of pulling them, he'd probably still be hitting a lot of line drives. His swing has always been geared to slashing across the ball, so that's where he has trained himself to swing the bat. If he brings his hands forward and then rolls his wrists...grounder. I thought Mauer was going to give up his power-pull experiment after the All Star game, but he's still trying to make it work. I'm certain it won't, not the way he brings his hands forward. Assuming he wants to hit balls where they're pitched, he'd have to decide during the pitch whether to bring his hands forward high to slash oppo, or lower to roll his wrists and pull a line drive, almost an impossible task. He's basically left guessing. Even when he does hit a line drive, it's not the smashed liner he's physically capable of generating, if he altered his mechanics. That change certainly won't happen during the season. That does leave the off-season for Mauer to tinker with better power mechanics. We all know he's an amazing athlete, much like Aaron Hicks. If anybody could develop a new swing, it would be Joe Mauer.

Should be interesting seeing if May's stint in the pen has changed his approach as a starter. Will he try to pick the four corners with his heater now? Will he pitch better from the set? Also should be interesting to see how Extra E does in his second try. Will Duffey pitch better with a bit less adrenaline? Does it help not to pitch against Toronto?

I don't think BABIP takes into account the velocity of the ball off the bat. Sano hits the ball so hard, it reduces the time for fielders to get their glove on the ball. The same thing is now starting to happen for Aaron Hicks since he developed his new kick and bat wave. The ball is coming off his bat harder, too. But not as hard as off Sano's bat... ;-)

This is why you don't get rid of Eddie Rosario. That bat, that arm, that speed. Even better, the mind of a baseball player.

Man, does that sound like a high character kid. Twins are lucky to have him in the system. I feel like I'd like to shake his hand and tell him he's going to be a great one.

Obviously Sano is the star of this game, but I hope we can save a little love for Aaron Hicks. He was really feeling his lefty swing today. Possibly a breakthrough.

Last time I fired one was late one night around Halloween. Soaked the tennis ball in lighter fluid because then it would leave a trail of blue flame you could see at night. Fired it at the back of a city bus as it left a bus stop. Whack! Then it drove away with a burning circle of blue flame where the ball hit it. We ran like scared rabbits. BTW, they don't make pop cans from steel anymore, so that design is officially obsolete. Soup cans might work, if you could find the right sized ball... ;-)

Used to make them when I was a kid. Four pop cans was best, and really burn the fuzz off that tennis ball. Can of lighter fluid, and some kid dumb enough to swing it and light it. Easily fired a ball 200 yards or more. I can almost smell the lighter fluid...glorious!

Beautiful friggin throw by Rosario. Big old caroke step, super leg drive, threw himself into the throw. Ball came out like it was shot from a polish canon. Beautiful.

I wonder if Joe Mauer could develop a Cuban Kick and a Dominican Bat Wave. Maybe he'd start jacking the ball around a little better.