jimbo92107

Agreed. Pelfrey needs to work, but not at the mlb level until he finds better movement. Meanwhile, bring up Hendriks or Gibson for a cup of coffee.

Mauer's mechanics are about as simple and efficient as you can get. Step in, pivot the hips, shove hands forward like you're going to slice an apple in half with a katana, follow through over shoulder. About the only thing that goes wrong with a swing like that is when you try to hit the ball too hard. Maybe Mauer should back off the throttle for awhile and just stroke some easy singles. He can do that anytime he wants.

From this chart I gather that what the Twins really need is guys that make lots of great defensive plays and hit lots of home runs, especially late in games.

If the Twins did can Gardenhire, my guess is that the main replacement candidates would be Gene Glynn, Tom Brunanski and Terry Steinbach, in no particular order. Meanwhile, I do have to wonder, what's the big deal here? Does sticking with Pelfrey a little too long constitute a firing offense, especially on a team with a pitching staff straight out of a hospital recovery room? Will a managerial change make that much difference on a team that would do well to win half its games this year? For as long as I can remember, Twins managers have used the first half of the season to do little experiments. They tinker with various lineups, let guys play that are struggling, keep pitchers in a little too long, you name it. Sometimes it may seem irresponsible, but there's usually a reason for it. With Pelfrey, clearly Gardenhire wanted to see if he could squeeze one more inning out of him. Answer: Nope, not yet. But Pelfrey is getting better each time out, so I would expect to see Gardenhire try the same thing next time, if Pelfrey is pitching well. This is not just for the won/lost record, but for the pitcher's future. He has to know that his elbow can survive another inning, but the rest of his body needs to be stronger. Those are good things to know in late April.

I agree with Chance. Pelfrey has to be missing something post surgery. My first guess would be that he's being a little mechanical in his delivery, trying not to re-injure his elbow, and that is taking away a little of his movement. If that's true, then more reps and warmer weather may help Pelfrey get back into a relaxed rhythm, and then his pitches will move more. That's what I'm hoping, anyway.

I'm not that pessimistic about Plouffe. Professional athletes are not robots, they go through spells where flaws get into their techniques and must be worked on. Gardenhire mentioned doing some slow toss grounders to get Plouffe moving into the ball. Pros do fundamental drills all the time. No reason to think that well organized drills won't help Plouffe.

I agree with comments praising Eduardo Escobar's fielding talents and his clutch hitting. If there's any reason not to move him permanent SS, it's his own versatility. Escobar appears to be the best super-sub utility man the Twins have had in quite awhile. I saw him field a carom off the left field sideline like a seasoned vet, then throw a frozen rope to second base. I've heard him mentioned as an emergency catcher. Is there any position he can't play?

Agreed that Escobar's got a gun for an arm. However, a few games ago I saw Pedro Florimon uncork one of the hardest throws I've ever seen. It was on the line drive grounder at Plouffe, which skipped off his glove and bounced high in the air. Florimon alertly circled under it, then caught and fired an absolute BB to Morneau. That ball must have been going over 100mph.

Add to that the fact that Aaron Hicks and Brian Dozier are finally emerging from their early season batting slumps, and things are looking bright indeed. Dare I say, "dynasty?" On a more serious note, I watch baseball for the entertainment value, not just to see the team win all the time. Things usually go wrong even with the best laid plans, but meanwhile it will be fun watching the new kids and the veterans cause a ruckus in the division. This season I look forward to witnessing some good defensive plays, while the new kid, Arcia, brings some much-needed power to this previously punch-less platoon. It was a good sign that his first home run landed near the base of the same flag pole that Jim Thome hit on Memorial Day a few years back. Good hit, kid. Of course, Thome hit the top of that flag pole... ;-)

Mostly I've seen Hicks bat lefty, but yeah, his rightie mechanics do look better. Also, I should mention that his "French Mistake" backwards butt push doesn't always happen. Sometimes he does a kind of neutral hip pivot. My point is that all good hitters let the back hip come around and forward, lagging just behind the swing. If you want to extend the bat outwards and forwards, then your front hip must be the axis of rotation. Good hitters don't leave the back foot stay planted back there, and you sure don't see the front foot draw back. I've seen Hicks do both, and it seems like the ball is a foot beyond the end of his bat. Very frustrating to watch, and I'm sure it's frustrating for Hicks. Fortunately there's an easy, low-tech solution to iron-out this problem. Find a stick from an old shovel or garden rake, then from behind the batter hold the pointy end just behind their front butt cheek. As long as he rotates his back hip around the front hip, he won't get poked in the butt. This will either solve the problem or start a fight, which is okay, 'cause you both have a stick. ;-)

I was watching some kids swing bats in the cages at Nevers/Larkin in Eden Prairie a couple days ago, and I saw something familiar. One of the kids couldn't seem to reach the ball with his bat, even though he was stepping in and turning his shoulders pretty well. What he was doing wrong was in his hips. People talk about "keep your weight back," but sometimes they forget to mention that you still have to shift your body forward into the swing. The difference between the two is kinetic. The weight-back observation is really referring to the posture you try to maintain through the swing, which is to stay centered over a strong base in your legs. However, at the same time you must generate power off the back foot, which requires driving forward off that foot, then turning your hips. Problem in the hip turn arise if the center of rotation of your hips shifts to the wrong place. As you move your lower body forward, you must ensure that the center of rotation of your hips is over your front leg. If the center of rotation drifts to your middle (belly button) or your rear hip, then something awkward happens. The rotation looks okay, but your torso moves away from the plate. This is what I call "doing the French Mistake," a reference to an hilarious dance number in Blazing Saddles. If it looks like you're pushing your butt away from the plate, then all the energy of your swing goes away, and you also lose the ability to reach any pitch from the middle of the plate outwards. In a healthy, powerful swing, the rear hip comes through after the bat whips around. In fact, your rear foot may actually come forward to the inside of the plate, even with your front foot. Just like a throw. After all, you're supposed to throw the end of the bat at the ball. Anyway, Aaron Hicks has been doing a bit of a French Mistake on his swing. He's keeping his weight back, but he's not shifting his mass forward, and he's not really following through with the rear half of his body.

I know one thing, I'd hire Jamey Carroll for darn near what he's making now to teach guys like Miguel Sano how to use that leather thing on their left hand to stop that little white ball from getting past them. Carroll's got one of the best gloves I've seen in awhile, and his overall baseball savvy reminds me of Nick Punto. Guys like that should be paid good money to transfer their top-flight baseball knowledge to as many young pups as possible.

I could see Sam Deduno replacing whoever falters in the current rotation. He's a competitive, entertaining pitcher, and he lasts a typical Twins 5 or 6 innings. This team is stocked with fairly good mid-rotation pitchers, and Deduno is as good as any of them.

I bet they could run Eduardo Escobar out there into center field. Did you see the play he made late in last night's game in Left? Almost gunned down Trumbo, who quite reasonably figured he could stretch his down-the-line single on an emergency replacement outfielder. Instead, Escobar got there fast, cut off the carom early, and then zang! his throw would have nailed Trumbo by twenty feet! BTW, Pedro Florimon's throw from deep short to first to end the game was maybe the hardest throw I've seen from a guy in Twins uniform for several years. Even for a shortstop, Florimon's got a cannon. I wonder if he could pitch an inning... ;-)

I take off my ball cap and wave it madly for Kevin Correia. Yay! Nobody expected him to be a shutdown guy, we just hoped for a solid starter and an innings eater, and so far that's just what he looks like. This Twins bargain basement pitching staff has a chance to be major league average. Yay!

Little League season's coming up, so I did my first session in the batting cages at the Nevers - Larkin facility in Eden Prairie. After conferring my wisdom on hitting to several kids, I took a turn in the batting cage myself, choosing the manly speed of 87mph. Not sure what happened next. Every few seconds I heard a loud thump back and to my right. Eventually I realized those were baseballs hitting the pad behind me. Now I'll be the first to admit that hitting baseballs is difficult, but it just doesn't seem fair when they're invisible until after they stop and roll past your feet. I guess now I have more sympathy for guys like Aaron Hicks. It's one thing to hit a lazy, arcing tennis ball that comes bouncing over a net; it's quite another when it seems you're swinging a ten pound stick at a BB shot from 30 feet. What's worse is that the machine isn't trying to fool you by changing speeds, spins and locations. How the heck does anybody hit these things. After awhile, I did connect with a couple balls. Two of them might have been can-of-corn fly balls to shallow outfield. Maybe I'll try the 55mph cage for awhile... Hitting baseballs is hard.

I liked Pat Neshek, R.A. Dickey, now Anthony Slama. Guys that get batters out without an overwhelming fastball. I also like finesse pitchers like Diamond, DeVries...and the quirky ones, like Deduno. Baseball should be appreciated as a form of art as well as a sport. Players that really understand the game, like Nick Punto, are as fun for me to watch as any superstar.

A motorcycle trip to Cedar Rapids might be fun this summer. Ride down, snap a bunch of photos, watch a game, eat a burger, ride back. That would be a good day. Oof, I just looked at the distance: 277 miles from the Twin Cities. Hefty ride, but I'd still do it. Maybe do a hotel, then ride back next day.

Yeah, he's got the wrong idea of how to adjust to different speeds. First, his rhythm is off, he's shifting his weight forward too soon. However, this isn't the problem, it's a symptom of the problem, which is that Hicks doesn't know how to adjust the size of the loop of his hands to the speed of the pitch. If it's a slow pitch, you do a big loop; faster pitch, smaller loop. If somebody tosses you a ball slowly, you follow the arc upwards, then downwards. If they throw it flat and hard, you do a smaller up-down. Also, notice that as he extends his arms he's pushing his butt away from the strike zone, what I call "Doing The French Mistake" (h/t, Blazing Saddles). This is a great way to eliminate your ability to cover the far side of the plate, as well as getting rid of any significant power in your swing. No wonder Hicks has no home runs from the left side. He's long to, short through the ball, which makes him a sucker for dying duck curves like in the example. Kevin Youkilis solved this problem by getting his hands up and forward, then pointing the bat head literally at the pitcher. He does let his hands come down to a more conventional position as he shifts his weight forward, and this is what lets him adjust the size of his loop during pitch recognition to be short to various speeds of pitch, with a good, long sweep through the hitting zone. Maybe that will work for Hicks.

Manny Ramirez Swing Analysis - YouTube In the linked video, note how Ramirez rocks backwards in a very pronounced way in time with the pitcher's front foot landing. Note how his hands follow the pitch up, then down. Note the initial forward lag of the bat head. Note that once his hands move forward, the bat head does not travel back beyond his back foot. Nice, flat loop. I predict this Ramirez kid will hit a lot of baseballs very hard.

The lag-loop-lag technique is used by a lot of players, both in tennis and baseball. Good example in tennis - Federer's forehand. Good example in baseball - Manny Ramirez's swing. In both cases, the palm forward (fore) hand never actually moves backwards, and the head of the stick initially lags forward. A good test of proper lag is to position yourself sideways to a fence with the bat or racket raised up, head lagged forward, right hand up near your right ear. As you shift your weight away from the fence, your hand must not move backwards (that is what's called a hitch), and the head of the stick will not hit the fence. As you finally bring your hands forward (in a little loop), that movement makes the bat head lag behind, which helps generate an efficient outward snap to the bat. This accomplishes the 'short to, long through' all with one wonderful, magical loop. Pow, the ball goes screaming off into fame and fortune. Now here's an important addition: You can do a decent lag-loop-lag swing with your feet planted, but you'll never hit a home run. As Kirby Puckett discovered, shifting your weight into the swing as you do your loop will vastly increase the power of your swing, if you still manage to achieve a tight snap. That's how a spindly little guy like Ted Williams managed to generate such a shocking amount of power. Good rhythm and a nice, tight loop.

Hicks is doing a couple basic things wrong, both related to getting his bat on the ball. First, he's planting his feet and standing like a statue at home plate. You've got to keep your body in motion and try to time your weight shift so you put weight on your rear foot just as the pitcher puts weight on his front foot. Second, he's not following the pitch in right out of the pitcher's hand. If you watch great hitters, clearly they are aligning their hands with the pitcher's delivery, as if they were trying to catch it in a glove rather than hit it. You have to pretend you're going to catch the baseball with your rear hand, then time your lag-loop-lag with the pitcher's rhythm. I play tennis. When somebody smacks a 100+ mph serve at you, the only way to get your racket on the ball is to react automatically to your opponent's movements. You take your clues from his alignment and movement, just like an interactive dance. All action sports are like this. You also have to conserve momentum, which is why you don't really do a back swing; instead, you move around the stick and perform a little lag-loop-lag gesture, aligning both hands to the level of the ball. Otherwise, you'll always be late on your swing. You adjust the size of the loop to the speed of the ball. If the ball is coming really fast, you can abbreviate the loop, and the forward lag allows you to bring your hands forward early, squaring up the sweet spot with the incoming ball. That's the secret of hitting fast moving objects. The weight shift provides power, while the adjustable lag-loop-lag compensates for differences in speed and trajectory.

Why not Brian Dinkelman? Decent fielder, and he hit over .300 in his brief stint with the team last year. Either him, or just move Escobar to 2B and use Dozier as the utility man.

The Twins appear to be well stocked with guys that could go a few innings. Duensing, Deduno, DeVries, Roenicke, Swarzak, even Robertson (if he improves his posture and gets his fastball back). Other than Perkins and Burton, is there anybody on the staff that can hit 95mph with his fastball?

Just put in Burton. He's your setup guy, and he's great. Otherwise, hell, bring up Michael Tonkin as your second option behind Burton. At least the kid throws flames. Tyler Robertson may have some mlb value, but he's so limited that I'd be tempted to replace him with somebody in the minors that simply throws hard, then work with that guy on simply spotting his heater to the four corners. Seriously, as well as Tonkin pitched this spring, do you really think he would have done as poorly as Robertson?