jimbo92107

"In Wimmers’ past three starts, he has thrown 21.2 innings without allowing an earned run. He has given up just eight hits, walked seven and struck out 23. Overall, he is now 5-1 with a 4.31 ERA for the Lookouts this season." You know, Alex Wimmers isn't all that late to the party. There's still a little beer in the keg. If he keeps pitching like this, maybe Wimmers will be in the discussion for a September callup... :-)

Now we are seeing the problem with having a team full of really young players. When things go wrong, they snowball out of control. Wild throw from the catcher allows Vargas to score from third. If he takes his time, he still gets the out at second.

In a possibly related story, every minor league player in the Twins system has simultaneously been called up to the majors and added to the 40-man roster. ;-)

I know exactly what Byron Buxton needs to do at the plate. Before each at-bat, flip a penny. Heads: Sit on the fastball. Tails: Sit on that pitcher's best secondary pitch. The best that an opposing pitcher can do at that point is to get lucky with what he thinks Buxton is sitting on. The very first pitcher Buxton faced refused to give him a fastball. Buxton, hoping against hope for just one heater, flailed. At this point, pitchers are setting up his expectations from one at-bat to the next. One way to confound their schemes is to randomize what Buxton is looking for. Then, at least for a couple pitches, it's even. After awhile, the coin flip could just count for the first pitch, and by that time, it won't matter anymore.

I guess AAA for Walker does sound about right. His plate discipline definitely needs work, so the next higher level would give him more of a taste of what kind of pitching he'd see in the show. The Twins outfield is turning into a logjam right now, anyway. Rosario stays, Buxton probably stays, and Hicks will stay when he comes back. Arcia might rebound, and Robinson is still a good forth guy with his glove, plus some offensive production. Hunter stays for this season, but I assume he won't be back next year with all the young guys up.

As long as there's a pronounced difference in the rules between the AL and NL, these periodic match ups will be entertaining, tho sometimes rather embarrassing for AL pitchers. I liked Trevor May's summary of it, where he said getting guys out was his job, but hitting could be like a hobby. Nothing wrong with taking some swings in the old batting cage, just to keep short to the ball. Might come in handy!

The model for Meyer should match the great job the Twins did managing J.R. Graham. They began by using him in low-leverage situations, then very gradually upped the ante. Now Graham is much more confident, and he's pitching great. In Graham's case it was about coming off an injury, where Meyer is still honing his mechanics to reduce walks. The same careful, gradual approach should work for Meyer, always with the proviso that they can back off and give him a break from the pressure.

Very good point, I hadn't thought of that. Vargas may be a switch hitter with a bit higher average, but his power numbers are nothing compared to Sano's. As a DH, you could have Sano hit forth right away, and work in his off time with Gene Glynn on fielding. Then gradually get him some time at 3rd or 1st base.

Sano knows what he needs to do: Bash a bunch of home runs, and play good 3rd base. Do that for a month, and wait for that plane ticket... ;-)

This is why Bryce Harper was shifted to the outfield. He could have been a great catcher, but this way, he'll last a lot longer. 20/20 hindsight for the Twins.

I like Tom Brunansky, but I think he may have blundered in his approach to trying to get Joe Mauer's power game amped up. Mauer perfected his inside-out slashing stroke and used it for years, letting the ball get deep in the zone and hitting curved drives to left field. There's a big difference between Mauer's most grooved stroke and the one he and Bruno have been trying to develop. If you look at a premiere power hitter like Toronto's Jose Bautista, he meets the ball a full two feet farther in front than Mauer does. But the most important thing is the weight shift. Bautista takes a pronounced stride forward into the ball, where Mauer keeps his weight back, just pivoting his front foot. The result is, when Mauer tries to meet the ball farther in front to pull it, his bat head rises too much, topping it, where Bautista's bat is carrying smoothly forward through the zone, catching the ball flush. In other words, for Mauer to pull the ball consistently with power, he'd have to develop a pronounced forward stride, a completely different thing for him. I'm not saying he can't do it, but right now clearly it's not working. Also it appears that Mauer reverts to his normal approach when runners are in scoring position. In "RISP mode," Joe looks remarkably like his former self, albeit with a bit less power. Could be that Mauer's problem isn't so much concussion related as it is a mistake in training. He simply needs to learn a different swing than he's used to, and that includes a definite forward stride. Otherwise, he'll just keep topping balls to the second baseman when he tries to pull it. I remember how coaches like to say, "Keep your weight back, kid." Yeah, keep your weight back, if you don't want to hit home runs like Jose Bautista. Big home run hitters all have a very pronounced weight shift into the ball. They also know how to keep the bat cocked until the last instant, then snap their wrists really hard.

Taylor Rogers may be an okay leftie, but how are we supposed to think that he would displace Tommy Milone, another soft-tossing leftie that completely dominated AAA, but can't dominate at the mlb level? "Soft-tossing" may be unfair on my part. Rogers's profile says his fastball is "average...or a tick above." Would a few more mph on his fastball do the job for Rogers? He's also 6'3", so he's taller than Milone, with more of a downward plane. Maybe that would translate into more wins as a 4th or 5th starter.

Look, I don't expect Buxton to hit the first pitch out of the park, like Rosario did. Any pitch in that first at bat will do. But really, what I'm looking for is his first steal of second. This kid has Ricky Henderson speed. He's gonna drive pitchers nuts knowing there's nothing they can do to stop him from taking bases. Having such a disruptive force on base will do wonders for whoever is behind Buxton in the lineup. That's why I want Buxton to bat ahead of Joe Mauer. I can practically see it now: Buxton on first, Mauer at bat. After two pitches, Buxton's on second. After four pitches, Buxton's on third. Mauer laces an easy line drive to the outfield, Buxton scores. We'll be seeing that so many times... 8-)

Alex Wimmers! Talk about a guy that's had to fight back from adversity. Wouldn't it be cool if he got back onto the prospect list!

Maybe they saw what I saw. By the 5th inning, Buxton in CF would have saved the team at least 2 runs, just with his defense. Add offense to that, and you might just have a playah!

It sounds like Stewart has a lot to learn, but he's made progress in building his repertoire of pitches. The next step, which could take years, is learning command and deception. That's when he'll start getting more whiffs...or not.

This deal could be a big winner for all parties. Pelfrey could go to a contending team and maybe get himself a ring. Meanwhile, the Twins could snag one more very promising arm for the future. I'm for it, assuming the Twins are out of contention. At that point they should be doing a full scale youth movement anyway.

I don't know if Michael Tonkin is going to be a good or great reliever in the majors, but there is absolutely no reason for him to spend another day in the minor leagues. He looks solid, he throws hard, and as far as I can tell, he doesn't crack under pressure. Use him!

It's a classic problem for power hitters. A hard swing usually means you have to start it early, so if a pitcher (like Pelfrey) can throw something with late breaking action, they can make you look like a fool. The problem for Walker is that a lot of major league pitchers can throw a pitch with late breaking action. That's why they're in the majors, they miss bats. The art of hitting at the major league level involves a lot of internal processing of what pitches you're going to look for from a particular pitcher. Brian Dozier has developed a nice formula with the help of Tom Brunanski. He looks for pitches mostly in the middle, trying to drive them flat. But if he sees high and inside, he pounces with those quick hands and bashes it into the left field seats. Walker needs to develop a more sophisticated plan for pitch recognition. I'm sure he and his coaches already know this. A little more plate discipline is AB Walker's ticket to the majors. Doesn't it seem like some aspiring old hitters and software programmers could come up with a VR program to train hitters how to recognize what's coming? You could integrate all the pro tips like a couple dozen physical tells from the pitcher, situational analysis, etc. Then see if the player could guess what's coming and who can guess the soonest. I bet Joe Mauer would be good at that.

Mauer is stuck in the extremes of left or right field. He needs to get back to hitting basics: hammer some baseballs up the middle. Knock some pitchers over, drill some screaming liners over a CF's head. Hit the ball back the way it came, then later you can work on pulling and slicing.

Good show. Sounds like Tyler Jay will remain in the minors unless he immediately puts up Tommy Milone numbers at Low-A, in which case they might bump him to High-A after a month, and if he keeps it up in High-A, maybe he gets to AA by September, but what are the chances of that against professional hitters? Speaking of which, when was the last time the Twins drafted a pitcher, then promoted him to the majors within a year? Blyleven, maybe?

If you bring up Buxton today, you suddenly have the fastest outfield in the major leagues, with two of the strongest arms. Even Rosario is reasonably fast, and has a good, accurate arm. Then if you leave the infield as-is for awhile, you've got one of the best fielding teams in baseball, with Vargas as DH/1B. Pitchers like good fielding teams. I'd do it right now. Bring up Buxton and turn on the electricity. Double the wattage on the disco ball, and buy a bigger smoke machine. Let him get a taste before the All-Star game, then hit his stride in August. Then, we think about bringing the Sano Lumber Company to town, and maybe even Der Kid, Max Kepler.

Mike Pelfrey has elevated his "floor" value to the Twins immensely. Now, instead of being a dubious over-30 pitcher on his way down, he looks like an inning-eating mid-rotation guy that can win a surprising number of games if he's supported by good defense and a little hitting. His heater is better, thanks to good movement and better command. He's been keeping it generally down, but clearly he can move it around the zone and avoid the middle, without issuing walks. His slider is nothing amazing, but nobody sits on it, so he can throw it almost any time. The big news is that splitter. Used to be that hitters could sit on Pelfrey's fastball and expect to get something in the middle part of the zone sometime during an at-bat. Now his heat is around the zone, not down the middle, and if you sit on it, he'll throw that excellent splitter, which he delivers with almost the same arm action as his heater. With its late down-left action, it's extremely hard to judge where that ball is going to be when a hitter initiates his swing. Even if they do make contact, it's going to be a weak grounder or some weird little squibber. More likely a lefty fouls it off his foot, and a rightie just whiffs. Thing is, he throws it with two strikes, and it looks like a BP fastball down the middle, so they can't prevent themselves from swinging. The last factor is stamina. Dick and Bert both noticed how strong Pelfrey still looked right into the 8th inning. His heat was still 93mph or better, and his command had not degraded to the point where hitters could really take advantage. Granted, they were starting to zone in on his heat, but a couple good catches ended the game. Maybe Pelfrey needs a slightly different pitch pattern for the eighth inning.

If they keep trying to play pressure baseball, I'm okay whatever the result. The Twins played so passive over the last few years, it really wasn't good baseball.

The one guy people aren't talking about much is Mauer's possible replacement at 1st base. Vargas? No, Max Kepler. Der Kid is hitting about .300 in Chattanooga, lots of doubles, good glove, good arm, great athlete, and his power stroke is legit. Kepler isn't another Joe Mauer, but his skill set is a better match for what the Twins need from a 1st baseman. More power, solid play. I expect to see Kepler and Vargas sharing time at 1st base within a year, and then where do you put Mauer? Of course, the moment I'm typing this, Mauer pounds a three run homer to tie the game with Milwaukee. RISP!