jimbo92107

It does beg the question, if Buxton demonstrates that he's good enough this spring to play major league ball, then what are they waiting for? I have no problem moving Hicks to a corner spot and playing Buxton in CF right out of spring training. Nothing in Buxton's progression has indicated that his grasp of the game is tenuous. He's not just barely making it, he's dominating at every level. This reminds me a little of the fuss over bringing up Wayne Gretzky to the NHL at the tender age of 19. All he did was continue to amaze the world. Why not Byron Buxton? Who ya got that's better?

At this point, a successful Twins season for me would just mean no more concussions, and no more blown knees and elbows. I already expect a reasonable amount of progress from the young guys. I figure Hicks, Arcia, Pinto and Dozier will get at least marginally better. This team is bound to get better if it can just stay reasonably healthy.

Sean Gilmartin could be one of those guys that needs to train physically as if he's always rehabbing from an injury. Build up the muscles around that shoulder, then learn to pitch in a way that doesn't re-injure it. Agree with other comments on the trade. Doumit is a good ballplayer, but the Twins have a glut of utility guys, and guys that may end up in a utility role. Getting a former high draft pick for him was a coup. On the other hand, Atlanta gave up on Gilmartin for a reason, too. Shoulder problems can end a pitcher's career in a hurry.

Lots of guys work hard, but it seems like they aren't quite sure what to work hard on. Josmil Pinto looks like he does know what to work hard on, and he's getting it right. At the plate, Pinto assumes a posture that is delicately poised, perfectly on balanced, yet relaxed. He could do his whole swing standing on a balance beam without falling off. His little leg kick allows him to hold his hands back for a few clicks, but it's under control - he doesn't lurch forward or torque his hips early, and he keeps his butt under him (no "French mistake"). Like Mike Redmond, Pinto's swing has a very flat plane, and his swing starts short, then unwinds from inside to outside. This allows him to a generous power sweep through the zone, which is why he sprays line drives to all fields. However, unlike Redmond, Pinto also can change the plane of his swing to more of an uppercut when the situation calls for a pitch he can drive. That approach isn't going away. Behind the plate, Pinto has continued to improve his mechanics, but he also appears to be developing an excellent feel for the game. He clearly takes charge, no hesitation, and he appears to relish the chess match against the hitter, the runners, etc. Again, it's not just that Pinto works hard; he appears to understand what's important, and works hard on the right things. It's good to know that there's still room in baseball for the guys that are not built like a blue jeans model. Sometimes the best player is a big fat guy or a little spindly troll. The important thing is knowing how to play the game, and Pinto is getting it.

Harper's swing is far more powerful than Buxton's. His hip turn brings the inside of his back knee much closer to the inside of his front knee. If you look at powerful hitters, from Ruth to Williams, the power transfer flows from the back foot, then in sequence up the body, like a twisted spring uncoiling around the axis of the front leg, whose foot must be closed to make the bat head flip through the zone. The most powerful swings appear to start with the bat head pointing almost at the pitcher.

Hicks is a fantastic physical specimen, highly intelligent, works his butt off, arm like a rocket, fast as heck, courageous to a fault in center field. I feel pretty good about his prospects for improving at the plate. He's known to be coachable, and he's got some pretty serious experts to help him figure it out. Chances are good.

Twins got the best of the deal with Meyer. Nats got the best of the deal with Span. Ask me ten years from now, and I can say I called it!

I love Mike Pelfrey's approach to pitching. It's exactly the way you want kids to learn it. His poise and economical delivery from the set is just about ideal. Other pitchers may have a hotter heater and a little more bend in their curve, but Pelfrey knows how to pitch.

Ping pong is a great sport for people that relocate a lot. Jo sounds like a good young man with a solid plan. Get better at striking people out.

Deduno doesn't throw enough early strikes to be a good reliever. He's either a starter here, or a starter somewhere else.

Same thought occurred to me. May not be fair to Mauer, but if anybody on this team could do it, Joe Mauer could learn to play 3rd base in a couple months, where most guys might not ever be able to do it. My bigger question would be, can Sano learn 1st base at the MLB level?

This is a sucker's deal. The guy is injury prone. Does Billy Beane want some guys that are injured? Bet not. Funny how that works.

Good writing. The concept of "one pitch at a time" is important. It's more difficult to parse the action in dynamic sports like soccer or hockey, but because baseball has essentially a break in the action between each pitch, you really can isolate your concentration on doing one thing really well, which starting each play with an outstanding pitch. Same thing is true in tennis and other racket sports, where the ability to ignore the occasion, the crowd, etc, is essential. That's when you can arrive at the best frame of mind for sports, which is having fun inside the game.

Quite so.

Caleb Thielbar for sure, with Oswaldo Arcia a respectable second. Thielbar's heater regularly tops 93mph, and his slider/curves are excellent secondaries. Better still, his tempo keeps his fielders awake, his delivery is very quick, and he attacks the zone early to get that vital first strike. Like Albers, plus 5 miles per hour. Arcia was fun to watch, although he had the typical rookie troubles trying to deal with pitchers that change speeds, which they do so much better in the show. Hopefully he will do what Brian Dozier did, take lessons from Bruno on delaying his swing without losing power. Aaron Hicks is going to be a star, that's my prediction. He's got all the right physical characteristics, and he's clearly highly intelligent. However, he appears to be the kind of guy that has to learn every detail about hitting, and then work his butt off with massive repetitions. He's not a "natural" hitter; he's going to have to make himself into one with careful study and lots of experience. Same is true with his base stealing. He's going to have to learn from a great teacher, and it will take time. Josmil Pinto is already there. Forget about his "rookie" year next season. Just put him behind the plate and get Joe Mauer the hell away from those damn foul tips. Pinto's hitting approach is already as good or better than Dozier's new one. He already knows how to delay his flip on off-speed stuff, something a lot of guys never learn.

On the subject of muscle atrophy, isn't there an electro-stimulation treatment available to keep muscles at least a little bit in tone?

It's not just Ron Gardenhire that needs to go, it's The Twins Way. Gardenhire is not a bad manager, in that he does implement the philosophy that this organization has chiseled in stone. The problem has become the philosophy. Many years ago, The Twins Way meant something different than what we are seeing now. The bullet points are the same: pitch to contact, great fielding, hit to the opposite field, etc. However, somewhere along the line something changed. Pitch to contact started to mean "nibble around the corners." Great fielding started to allow slow fielders with iron gloves and crappy accuracy, so long as they hit a home run now and then. Hit to the opposite field started to mean stand there and wait for ball four, only to watch strike three. Oh, and how many bases did you see this poor fielding, strikeout prone, nibble around the corners team steal this year? Sorry, our big, clumsy guys are too slow to steal bases, and the fast guys don't know how. The sad fact is that The Twins Way under Ron Gardenhire and Rick Anderson has become a cartoon mockery of itself, the low-T version, the slow, passive, old man's interpretation of "the piranhas." Piranhas with dentures. I do not question that the players on this team love Ron Gardenhire. Clearly the man is a warehouse of baseball knowledge, and he loves his players, too. The reason he should step aside is that the team needs to regain an aggressive edge that has been lost over the past few years. When the odds are 50-50 to swing or check, you should swing, hard. Get rid of slow outfielders. Pitch inside. When you're on base, you're a base stealer, not just a runner. Baseball is a game best played hard, embracing risk. The Twins Way has become a conservative, plodding style that is dull to watch, looks boring to play, and loses over 90 games per year. Today's Twins are at or near the bottom in all the categories that make baseball fun to watch: attempted steals, home runs, strikeouts, outfield putouts, bunts, pick-offs, trick plays, etc. You can't play pro baseball like you're trying to avoid a heart attack. The Twins need a manager that likes to roll the dice, and when he loses, can't wait to roll 'em again. Gardenhire himself talks about "getting after it," but his team plays like they're afraid of being too aggressive. It's like a fish that's scared of water, a bird that's embarrassed to flap his wings, a clown afraid to put on that big, red nose. Embrace the risk, celebrate your own embarrassment, or hand the microphone to the next bad singer. Life is karaoke, most of us suck, but that shouldn't stop anybody from giving it a go. We love you too, Ron, but it's time for a change. Please, hand the microphone to the next bad singer. You've been kind of hogging it.

When the Pohlads failed to throw a ton of money at Terry Francona, I was almost as pissed as when the Vikings passed on Colin Kaepernick. What did I see in those guys that I don't see in Gardenhire or Christian Ponder? It's a little hard to describe, but it's a certain look in their eyes, apart from other physical attributes. It's a level of determination that most people, even professional athletes, just don't have. It's an almost demonic intensity, a Napoleonic gleam of boundless ambition, combined with a big chip on your shoulder. This is what I saw in A.J. Pierzynski that I don't see in Joe Mauer. It's what I see in Brian Dozier that I don't see in Pedro Florimon. It's what I saw in David Ortiz that I didn't see in Kent Hrbek. Various players and coaches have more of it than others. Puckett had it, Gladden had it, Morris had it. It can make a player with moderate talent into a star ballplayer, like Nick Punto. It can make a star talent into a superstar, like Torii Hunter. And a superstar talent becomes Bryce Harper, and we're all hoping, a bunch of guys in the Twins minor league system. Guys with that raging flame inside can be hard to get along with, but without that flame, a guy with superstar talent may fizzle out. I hope I'm not talking about Aaron Hicks. I will readily grant that Ron Gardenhire and Rick Anderson did not have as much talent to work with as did Tom Kelly. But there's a fine line between patience and complacency, and to me Gardenhire has remained passive far too much with players that either didn't have the talent or the fire to win. Gene Glynn should be the manager next year.

Josmil Pinto's ability to wait on off-speed pitches is the thing that really has impressed me about his approach. Most hitters, and especially young ones, are vulnerable to the drastic changes in speed that professional pitchers are able to deliver with little warning. Oswaldo Arcia is a good example of a guy struggling to adjust to speed variations - he tends to lunge at change-ups, knocking himself off balance. Somehow, Pinto is able to keep his hands back longer than Arcia, and the results remind me a lot of Brian Harper, another excellent hitting catcher.

Thursday evening I googled a few 2014 mock drafts. All of them had the Twins picking a catcher. After seeing a few weeks of Josmil Pinto, I really don't see the need. Pinto appears to be all the Twins need in a young, talented catcher. His approach at the plate reminds me of Brian Harper, he's strong and agile, and his defensive techniques look fundamentally sound. The Twins should once again use their first pick to draft the most talented pitching prospect available. Most of the field positions look well stocked for a run a few years from now, when good young pitching will be just what the team needs.

Maybe Hendriks should do what Swarzak and Duensing have done - spend one or more seasons building a foundation of good stuff in the bullpen, then try to transition to the starting rotation. Guys that don't have devastating stuff need time to hone their skills against major league hitters, but at first it's better to work on getting just a few guys out per appearance. This used to be normal in pro baseball.

I don't suppose the pitcher stared at Gomez after he intentionally hit him in the knee with a fastball in a previous series. When there's a history, let the boys play. I wish the Twins had a player with that much fire in his belly. Oh wait, they did. He wasn't good enough.

Here's the problem with waiting "until it's obvious he can't handle it anymore." That means you're waiting until he has another concussion, and that could easily be the one that ends Joe Mauer's career. When I was about ten years old, I got hit in the head with a hard-thrown baseball. I was pitching batting practice, and the guy in center field decided to show off his great arm by throwing it all the way back to me...while I was throwing another pitch to a batter. I remember this: "Look out!" "Wha---?" A couple minutes later, the lights gradually came back on. I was done with baseball for that day. Of course, that ball was probably going only about fifty miles per hour, but it hit me directly in the back of the skull. Pitches hitting Joe Mauer in the head are traveling 90mph or faster, blows that deliver far more energy than the ball that hit me. I've seen him get hit by three or more shots like that in one game. A concussion is not like a bruise on your arm. It's more like damage to the delicate wiring that allows you to think and perform coordinated activities like running, throwing, hitting, and playing catch with your kids. Healing the damage to that wiring is a tricky business, and sadly, it doesn't always heal completely. I don't want Joe Mauer to be forced out of baseball because of concussions, not like Corey Koskie was. I would much rather see him play 1st base or right field for another decade, maybe win another batting title, than see him get beat up even more behind the plate, especially when good defensive catchers aren't that hard to find. Move him out of there now, so we can watch Joe's beautiful swing for many more years.

Gene Glynn or Terry Steinbach. Yawn.

What a crappy thing for Torii Hunter to say. What a crappy attitude towards a serious brain injury. Ever had a serious concussion? Try it, then get back to us how it's just a little owie.