jimbo92107

.183 average over 531 plate appearances. Sigh. He'd have to add 50 points to that average to be a mediocre hitter. Healthy young guy, good coordination, not intimidated by baseballs going fast...what's the problem? We've all seen him at bat. Can't he just swing flat, hit the ball straight ahead?

I'll call it for Deduno and DeVries to start the season as 5th and 6th starters, with Gibson starting in AAA, then moving to the rotation sometime mid season. Gibson could push Deduno and DeVries into the pen for relief and spot starts, of which there will be many. Blackburn is now on the outside, looking in. I liked him, but his career is winding down fast. Outside shots for Alex Meyer or Esmerling Vasquez sometime during the season. This rotation is full of guys that have had arm trouble in the past, and half of them will go down if Twins luck holds true.

Guys like Dozier and Florimon know perfectly well how to swing a bat, but they need to learn situational hitting, which is more complicated than simply knowing the situation. First, you have to know the situation, which includes the score, the pitcher, how many outs, who's on base, where, etc. Second, you have to know how to read physical cues from the pitcher, the fielders, etc. Third, you have to understand how the first two things alter the likelihood of seeing particular pitches in particular locations. Fourth, you have to learn to actively bluff the pitcher with false cues, like acting frustrated, muttering to yourself, waving the bat, or not, etc. Knowing all these things is how a batter applies pressure to the pitcher, which is facet of applying pressure in general to the opposition. Fifth, you have to believe you can control the game. Very few players are able to internalize that attitude. The ones that do...control the game.

We want happy stats, we want happy stats! For those of us looking for a reason to buy a Twins hat or even (gasp) a ticket to a game this year, can't you come up with some stats or projections that will warm our hearts on these frigid winter days? Here, I'll start: If Sam Deduno gets that pesky control problem fixed; if Kyle Gibson dominates in spring training; if Hicks, Arcia and Benson tear the cover off the ball all spring; if Florimon learns to read pitchers; if Plouffe starts playing third base like Dave Schmidt; if Morneau arrives in Fort Myers looking like he's 25 again; if Gardenhire loses fifty pounds and starts doing wind sprints with the players; if Parmelee starts swinging the bat like Rafael Palmiero... Of course, some of these things may not happen, but for sure most of them will!

Too many people seem to be missing the point of baseball. It's a game that allows you to apply pressure in endless ways, yet people strive to limit those ways with far too much hidebound tradition. It's a constant struggle between conformity and creativity. Every now and then we get a glimpse of the possibilities when we see guys like Bryce Harper and R.A. Dickey. These are guys that find ways to apply pressure to the opposition with their minds or with something unusual. I love watching Sam Deduno's crazy fastball. I love watching Cole DeVries walk a tightrope with every batter, and even how Pedro Florimon struggles to find a successful approach to hitting. Every now and then you see it: Just before a pitch, the batter suddenly knows where it's going to be; an infielder takes a step to his left. They think they know what's about to happen. The drama of baseball lies in that twilight zone between pure guessing and knowing for sure. It's ballistic poker. Every player is looking for physical signs, tells, analyzing the game situation, and using that semi-knowledge to find an edge, to apply pressure. Watching that happen is absolutely glorious. I don't care if the Twins sign some heavyweight outsiders or simply develop their team from within. Actually, that's not true; I'd rather see the young guys come up and figure out the game while I watch. It's the purest form of fandom - I'd rather see my team rise to greatness by drafting talented players and teaching them to win than by simply breaking out the owner's checkbook and buying a championship, like the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Rangers, etc. That's why I'd like to see the Twins bring back Nick Punto - not as a player, but as a coach at a minor league level where he can get players thinking about the many ways to apply pressure. That's where the real game is played, between the ears.

AJ, is there anything special you're considering nutritionally? I'm talking vegan powder supplements, Ninja veggie smoothie monstrosities, etc. If you are what you eat, don't eat a lot of greasy pork sandwiches.

Isn't that already what the Twins did last season? They had about a dozen different starting pitchers. Why fight it, just bring in a whole bunch of guys, then rotate them in and out of the bullpen.

Given an infinite number of highly unlikely events, it is inevitable that something highly unlikely is happening all the time.

Truthfully, the odds of guys like Harden regaining their form after tearing a rotator cuff are probably lower than a guy like Deduno finally gaining control of the strike zone.

True about silly moves. With the Angels stacking their lineup with 30+ homer guys, Texas may feel a need to respond with a couple big knockers like Morneau and Willingham. But I'd still rather have a pitcher for them, not another infielder.

Yet another reason to bring up some young, fast outfielders.

The paradigm is an interesting concept in that it attempts to describe a body of ideas within a functional metaphor. For instance, Darwin's "survival of the fittest" paradigm for evolution is commonly misunderstood to imply that physical strength is an invaluable survival trait, ignoring the fact that butterflies and petunias...exist, and have survived for as long as any other living thing. Twins management, like Oakland's, realized that exceptional strength, speed and other impressive physical attributes do not necessarily make for a great ballplayer, and that having a team of such people (whose services usually come at a premium price) does not mean you will win a World Series. "Chemistry" is the paradigm that has floated around sports for a long time, and every team has its own secret sauce for what kind of chemistry will produce a winning formula. Teams like the Twins, A's and Rays have been trying to find a formula for winning that does not require such expensive ingredients. Indeedy do, a pitcher like Kevin Correia, lacking overpowering stuff, must fit successfully within a more complex system of interacting parts. Correia cannot simply walk out there like CC Sabbathia and strike people out or induce easy grounders and pop-ups. As a "pitch to contact" type, Correia must work in concert with a very good defense, one that understands how to anticipate the interaction between Correia's every pitch and the likely response from each hitter. In other words, behind him he needs a bunch of friggin' psychic geniuses that field like Derek Jeter. That's not asking too much, is it?

Why should I buy a ticket if things don't change? Twins management has to realize that there's not much reason to be interested in this team if we get another year of the same old crap as the last two years. With promising new faces like Hicks, at least we get to cheer for the future. Bring up the kids, give them a taste of the bigs. Let them see the giant new stadium and hear the enormous volume of thousands of people. Will they be intimidated? Fine, get the novelty out of the way. Screw all the clever contract moves. This team sucks, and everybody knows it. Make some big changes, or lose your fan base.

Not Perdomo, but I had fun watching some of the Twins pitchers last season, especially Deduno and DeVries. Both guys were able to apply pressure to opponents in their own ways. Now you've got Diamond, Worley, Gibson, Hendriks, and maybe Hernandez vying for rotation spots along with DeVries and Deduno. I don't mind what I see here. Pitching is always going to be a crap shoot at the bargain basement level.

Baseball is more fun to watch when guys like Ben Revere are playing.

I just looked at the 40-man roster. Where's Sam Deduno?

You move Morneau now because you've got to get Mauer out from behind the plate. I'm thinking Parmalee at 1st and Mauer in RF, because Mauer has a bazooka arm and better foot speed.

I don't like that he crooks his elbow when he takes his throwing arm back. It removes the whip set of his wrist. The resulting lack of rhythm could make his timing inconsistent. He also seems too stiff as he rolls his forearm through the pronation point. On the other hand, his final acceleration is well out front, so he's not stressing his shoulder. If he's going to throw high sidearm, he might as well get more whip out of his torso.

Unless they teach somebody to throw a knuckleball.... Too soon?

I bet the thumb area where Plouffe bruised the bone hurts a lot, but it's manageable with anti-inflammatory drugs. It's one thing to have a slow-healing bone bruise, it's another to keep using that area to swing a baseball bat, including those wonderful inside pitches that make the bat transfer all the ball's energy to the injured spot. I can't tell you that Trevor Plouffe will re-emerge as a star hitter next spring, but at least he'll be able to swing the bat normally. If his hand is fully healed, he's got a good chance to start knocking the ball around again.

Don't blame the playah. Who predicted this? Nobody. I'm glad Nishi decided to end the experiment and go play baseball back home. Good luck to him.

I don't mind a little cheer leading from the hometown crew, as long as it doesn't affect their honesty when it comes to how players are performing. It's embarrassing when an announcer sees the pitch graphic reveal a ball, and he still says it was a strike. It's also embarrassing to hear an announcer make excuses for poor fielding or a bad approach at the plate. Dick and Bert are pretty good about keeping the perception bias to a minimum.

The gif isn't a good example of Deduno's sinking fastball; looks more like a two seamer that got away from Doumitt and the batter just had a notion to swing and missed because the ball ran away from the outside corner. Thing is, Deduno throws pitches that move so much, both the batter and the catcher have trouble making contact. For Deduno, the key to success is to reduce the movement to a manageable level, and it looks like Rick Anderson has made great progress getting Deduno's fastball reasonably under control. Deduno's future as a starter depends entirely on his ability to maintain a modicum of control over that crazy fastball. If the opposition senses him losing command (as they did in a few games this season), they'll just stand there and take walks. He's always going to have to prove he can throw strikes if batters refuse to swing. When that happens, Deduno is going to have to have something he can throw for a strike that's not just a batting practice pitch. Absolutely you pencil him into the starting rotation next spring. Then you see if he can actually throw strikes. If so, he's got the best raw stuff on the team. Great fielder, tough competitor, good endurance.

Yes, it's good to cheer for your favorite players. Just don't buy a jersey with a name on it. ;-)

Well, if he thinks he can compete with all the talent in spring training... Ha ha, painful joke.