jimbo92107

Another factor to go with having a strong arm is accuracy. Michael Cuddyer's reputation for gunning down runners had as much to do with throwing strikes to second base from deep right field as did the velocity when the ball left his hand. Sadly, Ben Revere's arm is not only relatively weak, but it's also not very accurate. He may never be a threat to throw out a runner rounding first unless he's running in for a ball. Even then you'll have fast runners testing him, because Revere's arm just isn't very accurate, either. That said, I agree with most of the guys that observed how much more important it is to have great range and a good glove than a strong arm. Guys don't go to second if their fly ball gets caught, and we have seen how Revere's range has saved the butts of Twins pitchers in the past. Last year Scott Baker should have sent half his paycheck to Ben Revere... ;-)

Ridiculous article. The Yankees aren't stupid enough to trade for Liriano. NY is the biggest stage of all, and Liriano has already shown that pressure makes him unravel. If he can't handle pressure situations in Minnesota, imagine how he'd come apart when New York fans start tearing into him after one bad outing. You'll never get the Yankees to trade for a guy that lacks self-confidence. Liriano would have to win a Cy Young award before they would even consider acquiring him.

Denard Span's skills could help some team score a lot of runs. He's one of the league's best lead-off hitters, has great speed in the outfield, steals bases and is a smart player. As others have observed, his real value will be as a right fielder on a team that already has a great CF, like the Yankees. Imagine a Span - Granderson one-two punch in that lineup, and then imagine the ground those two would cover on defense. Either one of them could bat first, and you'd still have a pitcher's nightmare. Span is a good CF, but from that position he doesn't get his shoulders turned enough to generate a powerful throw. From right field it's a different story. From there, he gets natural shoulder turn from having the bases to his right while reaching half the time to the left side of his body, where the glove in his right hand forces him to turn sideways. The result is a more powerful throw to second or third base. Combined with his great speed and smart positioning, this improvement in his throwing makes Span an All-Star caliber right fielder with an MLB average arm, good enough to gun down all but the fastest guys making the turn around first. It's kind of sad, because on the lowly Twins Denard Span will be stuck in center, where he really is their best option. Revere still doesn't have the arm to do much out there, while the minor league guys are still mostly a couple years away. Tell you what though: In a few years, with Benson, Hicks, Arcia and a few other guys up, this team will be loaded with fast OF's with serious guns for arms. With those prospects coming up, I can see why the Twins might be willing to deal Denard Span for a good pitching prospect or three. Especially in a year where it just. isn't. going. to. matter.

Cole De Vries will be back up. They'd rather see him get a few more starts in AAA, then bring him up after the All Star game and after whatever trades happen. The Twins are so thin on pitching, a guy that can simply give them a "respectable" start (six innings, five runs) is almost a sure thing to get in the rotation. De Vries appears to be better than that. He has actually delivered a few quality starts. Nick Blackburn does belong down in AAA to work on his mechanics. As Parker Hagman has observed, his pitches today lack the movement that used to make him an effective ground-ball pitcher. At the same time, maybe he'll rediscover his stuff with one more start. Probably not, but you never know.

Let's keep in mind that Goodrum is very young. As a six-month old baby, he's got at least 22 years before we can conclude he was a wasted pick.

Doumit is the closest thing I've seen to Mike Redmond in a Twins uniform. Not quite the average, but a bit more power.

Assuming the two examples are supposed to be the same pitch, Blackburn's head falls much farther to the left in the first clip, causing his torso to pirouette away from the plate, imparting much more inside-out spin than in the second clip. I see the difference in the front leg, but he could still impart inside-out spin with that stride. Why he chose not to, I don't know. Again, we're assuming he was trying to throw the same pitch in both clips. Maybe that assumption is wrong. Blackburn does walk a tightrope of subtle variations in his delivery. Could be that he's constantly tinkering with his release point, wrist flip and such, and sometimes that gets him in trouble. In the second clip, the ball came out of his hand with nothing on it. Obviously the first clip was a much better pitch. Does it come down to mechanics, pitch selection or simply flawed precision? The balls going 400 feet off Blackburn have been right down the middle. That's a bad spot no matter what spin you put on the ball.

My brother Sam did the same thing in about 1969 when he was eleven years old. He had a huge lead at third. Pitcher threw behind him, Sam took off for home, third baseman fired a strike to the catcher Bill Conroy, who crouched with the ball, ready to make the tag. Sam dived over the catcher, rolling over home plate like the player in the video. Umpire Rich Klingman called him safe, after which the opposing coach came out and argued the call, saying Sam was out of the base path. Not so, said Klingman, because the base path is limited left and right, but not...up.

On bringing back Scott Baker: I'd do it. Why? Because Baker, unlike Francisco Liriano, already knows how to pitch. Even if Baker has to conserve his repaired arm, he's still got good balance and a clean delivery. He'll throw strikes when he gets back, because he starts and finishes on balance. Now, like a lot of major league pitchers, Baker generates too much power with his arm, which caused it to fall off. He's going to have to learn to generate power with his legs, torso, shoulders and rhythm, then just flip the ball from the shoulder up. Pitchers with an "easy motion" have been doing that forever. Think Jim Palmer. Baker's motion had an unfortunate late cranking action where he torqued on his forearm, trying to generate speed late in the motion. You can do it, but eventually it will damage soft tissues in your elbow and rotator cuff. When Baker gets back, I'll look to see if his motion seems easier on his arm. If so, he's got a future. If not, he'll have a year or two before he retires with more damage. He should model his comeback after Jake Peavy, a guy that used to throw like Baker, and now he's got a new career throwing a little softer.

I was dead certain that by now we'd have Valencia at 3rd and Plouffe at SS. How things change...

I can sum up Plouffe's improvements with two observations: 1. He's using a stance and swing more like Ricky Henderson. 2. He's put some dance in his butt. The more crouched stance and rear position of the hands creates a natural pull when he pops his hip, rotating his belt buckle towards the second baseman. This helps create a quicker and more powerful whip in his swing. The dancy butt is huge. If you plant your feet like Dozier, you'll be a crappy hitter with slow reactions. A good hitter has to be like a tennis player practicing high-speed volleys. You have to keep a little dancy waggle in your butt, and keep your feet just a little bit in motion. Plouffe now has a properly rubbery grip on the bat, and his feet are just busy enough to react in real time to the pitcher's motion. A perfect example of a great dancy butt is BJ Upton. Serious waggle down there, and the result is explosive. In contrast, planting your feet and tensing your legs is as dumb as squeezing the bat really hard. It just slows you down. Plouffe now has good waggle. Ka-boom!

That move makes more sense. Parms ain't gonna get many AB's with Justin looking good at the plate, and we already have a pretty good bench for OF.

The Anthony Slama situation makes no sense to me. Sure, it's great to have a relief staff that all throws mid-90's heat, but the whole point is to get guys out, and Slama does that better than anybody else in the Twins minor league system. The whole bias against pitchers that succeed with craft and guile is an insult to a hundred years of great pitchers. It's why R.A. Dickey is pitching for the Mets with his 9 wins and one loss. It's why the Atlanta Braves gave up on Scott Diamond. Knuckleballers can't win. Starters should all have mid-90's heat. Relievers should all touch 97mph, maybe 98. Stupid, stupid, stupid. How about this: Pitchers should keep their team in the game, however they do it.

Dozier stays. His mentality is tough, so he'll learn enough this season to survive in the bigs, then come back better next season. Fielding errors are just a matter of getting more reps, then they'll mostly go away. Dozier is going to be a solid SS, but he IS a rookie, and rookies do make mistakes. Practice, practice, practice.

It's not a weird feeling, it's completely natural. Aaron Hicks is rising slowly through the minors, just about the same way Torii Hunter did, and the way Dennard Span did. Some ball players need a full schooling in the minors before they emerge as a polished product. Sometimes, like Span and Hunter, they get a brief taste of the big show, then get sent down for some specific instruction, then come back up as an emerging star. At 22, Aaron Hicks is a looooooong way from looking like a wasted pick. He is already regarded as an excellent pro-caliber outfielder, and he's gradually getting better as a hitter. Within two years he'll get his first taste of the show, then maybe a little more AAA, then back up to stay. That's my prediction. We may well see Hicks, Benson (Arcia?) and Buxton together in the outfield within three years.

You can criticize PJ Walters for not having a "quality start," but I'll tell you one thing: Every time PJ Walters has taken the mound for the Twins, he's brought respectability. Maybe that's a new stat - a "respectable" start. That' when you give up less than five runs in five innings. The Twins have been missing respectable starts for awhile now. Too darn many big innings for the opposition, not enough damage control. So far, PJ Walters has brought a respectable game to the mound for this team.

These are transition years. Dozier can take his hacks, learn the hitting game at the mlb level, and maybe start raising his avg during the season. Meanwhile, he's a very solid glove at SS, and he's definitely a competitor. I think he's got a little Pedroia in him.

Makes me wonder how all the top pitching prospects have mid-90's fastballs. Is that natural? Do they really have such good technique? It also makes me wonder why such a high percentage of pitchers need TJ surgery. Are they over-throwing their joints with juiced-up muscles?

Atlanta's Brandon Beachy was a third baseman converted to pitcher. Aaron Hicks might be able to do the same thing, for the same reason: His arm has relatively low mileage, and with professional coaching, they could make sure he doesn't wreck his arm throwing curves incorrectly. Take a guy as athletic as Hicks and teach him the right way to pitch, you might just have yourself a star.

Plouffe apparently has decided that when he swings, he's going to swing very hard. The rest is all about deciding when to swing, which is difficult.

Don't trade Morneau. Already Cuddy is gone, and this team needs a leader.

Impossible to say, there's just not enough information. With all the surgery, how can we even know if Scott Baker will be able to throw a baseball 90mph after rehab? If so, will he be able to throw strikes? Baker's best days depended on his pitches moving a lot, like Jake Peavy in his prime. Peavy had shoulder surgery, and he struggled to get back, changing his pitching style to a sub-90's nibbler. If Baker's recovery and future are like that, then why not go with younger arms? Again, there's just no way to gauge Baker's future. A few guys get all their velocity back after surgery, but most don't. Scott Baker minus 3mph and minus movement would get killed every time out.

A year after breaking his pitching arm, David Bromberg has worked himself back into the mix. Twins execs must be drooling to see this guy in Rochester. Good job, Bromberg.

I don't think draft pundits considered Joe Benson a bad pick. What Benson really needs is to hang out for a month with Bryce Harper. Watch what he does, how he practices, how he plays. Joe Benson could be a lot like that. Maybe MLB should have some sort of rotary club deal where minor league players could shadow big leaguers for a week or two. Would Benson pick Harper to hang with?

When you get on a bicycle, first you place your left foot on the left pedal, hands on the handlebars, then you push off with your right foot. You glide forward as you swing your right leg over the back of the seat, and you're off. Simple, right? Okay, now let's have a bicycle race. This is a very short-distance race, because all you get is that first, initial kick with your right foot, and then you have to keep your right leg raised behind you as you glide forward, bent over the handlebars. Oh, and you have to stay within a lane that is one foot wide. If you veer off that narrow lane, you're disqualified. The race stops sixty feet from the starting line. At that point you must brake the bike to a full stop, right leg still held up behind you, and you must hold the bike still for two full seconds. If you fall over before that, you're disqualified. This is not an easy thing to do, but any kid could learn to do it with about twenty minutes of practice. That initial kick is how a pitcher is supposed to provide power for his pitches. The balance required to stay exactly over the balance point of a bicycle is how a pitcher is able to develop control and consistency. Shove off hard, then stay on that line. Guys like Mariano Rivera, Joe Nathan and Tim Lincecum do this consistently. It gives them great power and pinpoint control. Francisco Liriano would be disqualified from the mini bicycle race. His whirling, pirouetting motion makes it impossible to stay balanced, and therefore he cannot develop consistent control. He finishes differently on every pitch, which frankly makes it amazing that he can ever throw a baseball where he wants to. Really, it's a tribute to Liriano's great athleticism that he is able to throw strikes at all. It's like spinning around five times fast, then sinking a free throw. Very difficult. That's what's wrong with Francisco Liriano.