jimbo92107

AJ, get a really good compact camera. Some of your pics might be quite memorable. Good luck with the Cats.

Mauricio Cabrera is the only one that's even mildly interesting. Twins have guys just like those others strewn throughout their system.

Watched Gibson's debut from standing room behind the first base line. Looked like he had good command of his heater, but his off-speed stuff he was just getting it over the plate with not much command. Nerves. I figure he'll start picking spots with all his stuff within the next few starts, and then we'll see what he can really do. Hitters were unfamiliar, so Gibson had an early advantage, but he'll need to sharpen up after opponents see some video. That's when he'll need to spot his slider better and mask his pitches better. Very nice mechanics, squares his left side really well. I bet his slider will get a lot of K's. It was nice to see a Twins starter clocking 93-94mph, although he faded to 91-92 later. Peddle that bike, young man!

At least the options are starting to look more positive now. My one minor fear is that some of the guys we're looking at displacing will then go to other teams and play great, like Marquis from last year, Hardy, Gomez, etc. Pelfrey could do something like that, get fully recovered, pitch 200 innings and win about fifteen games for somebody. Escobar I don't think has that much upside as a hitter, but his fielding is excellent. I actually like the idea of stashing Hicks in AAA for a little longer. He was putting too much pressure on himself, needs to work on his batting against slightly easier competition for awhile. Same with his fielding, it looks like he needs reps on his footwork on his throws, get more accurate. An extra month in AAA might just give him a bit more polish.

Great report, Afar. Is it too early for us Twinkie-dinks to start whining, "Free Miguel Sano?" What, isn't he hitting the ball hard enough yet?? Keep swinging, kid. Maybe someone will notice... :-)

Three things make Perkins available: 1. Twins are going nowhere this season. 2. Burton could close. Not as good as Perk, but see thing 1. 3. Tonkin could be brought up, either as closer or setup man. In light of thing 1, trading Perkins for an outstanding prospect would make sense for the Twins. Whether or not the trading partner is a contender matters not at all.

If you consider the outcomes of guys like Joe Benson, it's hard to make the case for an A-ball prospect like Kepler being stashed on some other team's 25-man roster. There's such an enormous gap in difficulty between looking good in A ball and becoming a successful major leaguer, only superstar prospects like Sano and Buxton seem like potential risks for rule 5 sniping. Doesn't every team have good-looking young players in A-ball? How many major league managers can afford to have some raw kid ride the bench for a whole season, just because he can hit a single-A fastball? Your 25-man roster is precious; you reserve the last few spots for utility players and versatile relief pitchers, not half-formed players like Max Kepler.

Always makes me wonder if one of these lefties could add a pitch that hitters don't practice hitting, like a good fading circle change or a knuckle curve. Coming from the lefty release point, a rightie hitter loves an average lefty curve coming in towards his wheel house, but some lefties (eg: Bruce Chen) develop a collection of pitches that have a more unusual trajectory. Pedro Hernandez should study Chen's stuff to see if he can duplicate some of that. Guys that throw a bit harder like Darnell might try developing a circle change or a knuckle curve, something a little different than average.

One of the things I like about the near future for the Twins is that their farm system has a good number of non-prospect guys in it that appear to be doing well. Andrew Albers was being discussed for promotion before Gibson. Hernandez, Worley, Hendriks, DeVries, Herrmann, Colabello, Romero, Dinkelman and Richardson, all on AAA! Not to mention #20 prospect Michael Tonkin. One thing that worries me a bit is Oswaldo Arcia's emerging ego. Swagger is one thing, but too much "hooray for me" could start to suck the morale from the clubhouse. I hope Arcia remembers that when all is said and done, he's just a baseball player, not Super-duper man. We love the talent, but we could do without the Manny Ramirez antics. More Pujols, less Manny.

Glen Perkins at this point I call a proven closer. He typically dominates, frequently strikes guys out, and when he occasionally blows a save, he comes right back in the next outing and and dominates again. That shows that he not only has the raw stuff to close, he also has the short memory that a closer needs. Other than that, a pretty good evaluation of trade values.

You're underestimating the discernment of other teams. They have a pretty good idea what kind of player Parmelee is, just like we do. He's a fairly good RF/1B, with a diminishing possibility to someday develop into a decent power hitter, maybe 25 homers per year. Good arm, smart fielder, doesn't tend to land on the DL. If he develops into a star at this point, count me as one of the shocked, but he's a dependable player with average skills. Yeah, he'd be worth something in a trade package, and with several good outfielders and 1B's rising through the minors, his stay on the Twins should be short term.

"The Kyle Gibson Era is about to start..." How very true, his ERA is now 0.00. Come on Gibson, make that baseball you signed for me at Twinsfest worth something!!

This is a good example of firing your gun without really aiming at anything. I do it myself, but I try not to type it and post it without a bit more research into specifics. Sure, there may have been moves Terry Ryan could have made that would have worked out better, but which ones, and would they not have required more than a few tough predictions, especially about the future? Remember Jason Marquis? Man, what a bust. That guy couldn't pitch his way out of... Oh, wait, now he's pitching great, a year after we had him. Not to mention RA Dickey, that worthless knuckleballer... Oh wait, he won 22 games the year after we let him go. It goes on and on, and every one reading this could probably cite at least a couple examples of guys that should have been at least good, but flopped here, then went elsewhere and played great. However, there's a more than a little selective memory going on, too. Most of the guys the Twins got rid of did not go on to have monster seasons with other teams. When you want to take grouchy shots at Twins executives, you should consider the constraints they work under. Cheapo owners, players that don't want to come here, and just bad luck with guys like Marquis and Dickey. You should also acknowledge that despite the bad luck and low-end payroll, this team won its division several times not long ago, with a pretty good style of team baseball. Even teams with $200 million dollar payrolls don't always win the Series. Imagine the abysmal stupidity it takes to fail with that kind of money. Makes the whole business look like a crap shoot.

You're all missing a vital factor here. If you bring up Gibson and Albers, this decimates the Rochester pitching staff. Terry Ryan doesn't want to do that, right in the middle of a fairly good season.

Kinda what I figured, given Sano's reputation for crushing baseballs. Pitchers clearly were told, "Don't you dare give him anything below the waist." Thus, the first several at-bats everything was up, basically no strikes at all. Sano probably understood this going in, wondering how long it would last and who would be the first to venture under the belt line. Next, some intrepid souls decided to try down and in, which is okay so long as you don't put it there too often. Keep it high, high and away (out of zone), or low and in. Is Kennys Vargas coming up soon? Sano could use somebody a little more dangerous batting behind him. Meanwhile, he's seen this before, where pitchers are simply too terrified to challenge him, and in AA more of them have the precision to spot it in difficult locations. It's kind of sad, but the days of down-the-middle fastballs and hanging curves is over for Miguel Sano. This is when we find out if all that Sano hits is a pitcher's mistakes. Can he work the count like Joe Mauer? Can he hit junk like Vlad Guerrerro? It will be interesting to see.

Yeah, I think I remember that, too. Bastards!

It was like when what's his name pushed down our guy in that football game, then caught a touchdown pass. It's seared into my brain like a potato.

I bet AA pitchers are throwing nothing but off-plate junk to Miguel Sano, figuring the new kid will be swinging for the fences every at bat. Take the walks, kid. Sooner or later they'll have to pitch to you.

Yogi Berra's wit hinges on conceptual redundancy and logical inconsistency, not tautology. "Predictions are hard...especially about the future." The phrase is not repeated, but the first concept is echoed in the second phrase. "It's so crowded, nobody goes there anymore." Apparent logical inversion, yet it's a turn on the concept of "nobody" as in nobody important. Berra's sayings always imply a subtle observation on the human condition, which makes them far more interesting than merely repeating the same thing.

Agreed. Kyle Gibson's delivery has some of the same precision and balance as Mark Appel. Gibson will be the team's ace pitcher the moment he ascends the mound at Target Field.

Excellent write-up, Afar!

Glen Perkins is a great guy, and a Minnesotan, so it would be nice if he stayed here his whole career. That said, professional ballplayers all share one goal: win a championship. What are the chances of that happening here while Perkins can still fire fastballs at 95mph? Not very good. Like a lot of fans, it bothered me when the Twins traded Span and Revere, but I could see the reasoning behind it, with a plethora of young outfielders rising quickly through the minors. Also, I appreciated that the Twins made deals with teams that are legit contenders, so Span and Revere have a shot at winning a championship sometime in their careers. So, if the Twins could deal Perk to a team where a good closer is the final piece of the puzzle, and that team has a Twins top-10 prospect in single A that they'd part with, then the team could probably get by with Burton as closer, and bring up Tonkin next season. Meanwhile, Glen Perkins could look forward to a shot at a title. Under those circumstances I wouldn't mind seeing Perk get traded. Otherwise, keep him right here where he belongs.

We gotta do a motorcycle trip to Cedar Rapids. That would be extra cool.

You wouldn't promote DJ Baxendale?

Yeah, you got me. Maybe Sano can tape my rant to his locker. Shhhh... ;-)