jimbo92107

He's not finishing his follow-through. He's abbreviating his finish by not bending over enough at the waist, and his pitching hand is barely finishing past his ribs, much less whipping past his lower leg, where it belongs. On the middle clip, the so-called "cutter," look how he hops off his landing foot at the end of his motion. So much for putting side spin on the ball, he just floated his hand around it, barely getting enough RPM's to create a couple inches of bend. The drill I'd do with Hughes is simple: After every pitch, roll him a quick grounder. One to the left, one to the right, a bunt, a pop... Make him finish on balance and in position to field, which just so happens to be a good follow through, too. I know, Hughes has an upright, stand-up style. Problem is, if your right elbow doesn't finish outside your left knee, where's the waypoint to help with consistency? Maybe he can find it with more of those shortstop drills, so he can locate his natural arm slot. Otherwise, he may need a lot more practice fielding rockets in his direction. Right now, he's throwing awfully flat stuff.

Trevor May is an interesting guy. Built like Joe Mauer, and he appears equally even tempered. It doesn't surprise me that he is observing the good habits of great pitchers and learning to incorporate them into his own game. He's right about Ricky Nolasco - He throws a variety of pitches from a variety of angles, making it hard for batters to know what's coming next, even if he's just throwing fastballs. Nolasco's variety isn't truely unlimited, but it varies enough so hitters can't zone in on his intention, and that's enough to make him difficult to read. May is finding his own way of preventing hitters from grooving on his delivery, and it's working. What may be more important is that May is taking a pro-active attitude towards getting guys out. He's figuring out a plan to keep hitters off balance, and at the same time keep base runners from timing his delivery. If you find a really good balance point at the set, you can then do a lot of different things with your front knee - higher, lower, faster, slower - and still stay centered to hit your spots. It's a very economical way of keeping the opposition on the defensive. I don't think May should try too hard to emulate Nolasco, who falls off his pitching line in different directions, but has developed the ability to find an arm slot that still throws strikes. Better to emulate King Felix, whose front foot lands more in the same place. Variety is good...up to a point.

Better yet, steroids is skewing the whole scale.

Perk, Dozier and Plouffe, obviously. Gibson deserves consideration, but he won't get in because he needs to post a full season like he's having now. Pelfrey also deserves consideration but won't get in, for the same reason as Gibson. What's cool about this year's Twins is how many players are performing at star level, but not quite All Star level. Those capital letters take just a bit more to get. Can a team with no position All Stars still make it to the playoffs?

What a difference in Mike Pelfrey's life from just a couple months ago. Everybody except him thought he was bound for bullpen duty for the rest of his career. He'd spent a couple years working his way back from Tommy John surgery, trying to get his body as strong as possible and his elbow to work right again. Even his "last chance" as a starter came because the Twins were forced into it by Ervin Santana's suspension and Nolasco's stint on the DL. Now, his command looks great, and his stuff is filthy. Combined with an improved Twins defense, Pelfrey is winning games again. His heater is averaging around 93mph with good movement, and his splitter is embarrassing good hitters. Are we seeing the best of Mike Pelfrey? A couple aspects of this question intrigue me. First, his command. Obviously, every pitcher knows that you're supposed to avoid the middle of the strike zone, but it seems that only a few really master the art of keeping the ball around the edges. Pelfrey's command during this stretch has been almost impeccable. Why? Is it that years of mechanics drills have finally borne fruit, or is it just that his elbow is finally healthy after years of getting worse? Or is it some combination of the two, or some other factor? Second, his stuff. In that first clip, you can see that Pedro Alvarez recognizes the initial trajectory of the pitch as it comes out of Pelfrey's hand, which indicates it will be right down the middle of the zone. Only after it's halfway to the plate does the splitter's action take it down and left (out of the zone), inducing an embarrassing whiff. I think the word "filthy" comes not just from the degree of movement, but from the deception. It starts out looking like a sweet, down-the middle BP fastball, then disappears under your bat. Notice also that the ball doesn't duck down until it's over half-way to the plate. By that time, Alvarez has decided to swing at the spot where he expects the ball to be...but then it ain't there. Like a magic trick, his eye has been fooled. Did Pelfrey's stuff always have this late movement? I mean, earlier in his career, before his elbow problems. If so, you'd expect him to have an ERA that would put him out of Minnesota's price range. I think he's improved. I have a feeling we're looking at a guy who's had a lot of time to think about and refine his game. What he's doing today doesn't look like an accident, but rather the result of lots of work, and thought, about the most effective way to get guys out. I'm seeing a savvy pitcher with great command, and plenty of gas left in the tank. Mike Pelfrey looks like a damn fine pitcher.

One move I'd make right now is Jorge Polanco up and Danny Santana down to AAA. Santana has that overwhelmed look that Hicks had before he got sent down. Less pressure and more coaching might get him back up fairly soon. Meanwhile, I wants to see me more of that fun Polanco baseball that I saw last fall. He already plays with that aggressive, pressure style that the Twins have been putting on display so far this season.

Seth, great article. BoomBoom, you too!

I could see the Twins bringing up Polanco and sending Santana down for awhile if he doesn't play better. Santana needs more consistency all around. Polanco has earned another cuppa joe.

Boyer has had some balls hit hard on him, but right at people. He's got good command at the moment, but I don't see anything really amazing about his stuff. With few strikeouts, Boyer's success will depend on more bad contact, not line drives right to an outfielder. Does anybody know how his game is different this year? Mechanics? More change ups?

Agree with Wyatt. Buxton may be the fastest runner of the day, but the best hitter sounds like it was Kepler or Sano.

I'd hate to do it because I like the guy, but right now I'd DFA Duensing, replace him with Theilbar. Send down Pressly, tell him to work on his change up. Pelfrey to the pen, Milone to the rotation. Duensing may not be "done," as one guy put it, but it looks like he's lost his command. Maybe he can get it back at some point, but right now he's getting killed out there.

Trevor Plouffe today is playing the game of baseball at the highest level he can. He now has a solid foundation of physical fundamentals, and to that he has added a new layer of tactical and strategic awareness that is allowing him to process the game's many details and give himself the best odds to succeed. If you watch his demeanor at the plate, you can see it - like watching a mouse transform into a cat. Totally calm now, he looks for ways to put pressure on his opponent, no longer worrying about how a single at bat, or a play, or a game will affect his status as a player. Right now Trevor Plouffe is the most dangerous player on this team. I would find a way to keep him here.

Buxton for hitter of the day. I like it when a guy is constantly putting pressure on the other team. Buxton is doing that, including his steal, which makes opposing pitchers lose their cool. And imagine the kind of elite speed it takes to get SEVEN triples in just 36 games, and he spent the first twenty-something games shaking off rust!

If we stick to the two players I mentioned, the Hicks comparison doesn't hold up. Buxton especially has shown no signs of having large, puzzling gaps in his game, like Hicks. Meyer has alternately dominated and lost control of his stuff in AAA, but there's nothing fundamentally wrong with his delivery, or his arm already would have fallen off. I just watched Hicks, Rosario and Hunter dominate the outfield today, and it was a pleasure. Imagine what that outfield would look like with Buxton's speed in the middle, Hicks in right and Rosario in left. Every now and then you see a major league outfield that's so fast and skilled, you wonder if a baseball with touch the ground out there. Rosario did a great job chasing down a ball near the left field wall today, and he also almost gunned down Evan Longoria on what looked like an easy double. The ball got there about one tenth of a second after Longoria did, and he looked very surprised that it was so close. With Rosie, Hicksie and Buxie manning the field, great catches and throws would become everyday highlights. The pitching staff will save hits and runs. Remember the great diving catch a week ago by fourth outfielder Shane Robinson? Hicks gets to that ball without diving, as he did today. Buxton is even faster than Hicks, and has an even stronger arm! I'll grant that maybe it's still a bit too early for Meyer. Maybe he's not ready to be the "ace" of the pitching staff. I'd still like to see him in the bullpen, getting a few "low leverage" chances here and there, even if it's just a "cup of coffee" as they're calling it for Rosario. Maybe it will do Meyer some good to see that not every hitter at the MLB level is Mike Trout or Adrian Gonzalez. Striking out a few guys in the bigs might help him throw more strikes in AAA. Eddie Rosario clearly is having a great time with his little cuppa joe in the bigs. To me it looks like he's a little too timid at the plate, but then I like it when they swing really hard, just in case a baseball gets in the way. Byron Buxton may have some early jitters too, but I think once you call him up, he never goes down again. He's baseball's #1 prospect because baseball experts think he's on par with young superstars like Harper and Trout. The real question is, would bringing up Buxton and Meyer increase the chances of this Twins team making the playoffs? I think it would.

When I first saw Hicks come up, a couple things struck me. First, clearly he was an athlete of superior quality, which is the reason the Twins drafted him. He was big, fast, strong, coordinated, and apparently highly intelligent. Second, he seemed clueless at the plate. He would plant himself there like he was getting ready to fend off a Sumo wrestler, then flail at outside pitches while sticking his butt out like "The French Mistake" from Mel Brooks's "Blazing Saddles." It was mystifying to me how a guy so otherwise talented could look so passive and defensive at the plate. Didn't anybody show him video of Babe Ruth? Dave Winfield? He should be waving the bat and launching himself like those guys! Finally, we're seeing just a bit of this man's power potential. With his physical attributes, he should be able to launch home runs almost like Giancarlo Stanton. He should be making people cringe in fear in the third deck in center, and putting dents in outfield fences. Hitting isn't about trying to avoid striking out; it's about trying to launch little white baseballs into low earth orbit. I don't watch baseball to see Aaron Hicks work a count to a walk or a slap single. Guys like Aaron Hicks should be making pitchers dive out of the way and fielders look frozen in place. Look at the game's most entertaining player, Bryce Harper. He spends hours practicing not just in a cage, but with a weighted bat, learning how to swing that thing with frightening force. I want Aaron Hicks to swing the bat like Bryce Harper, but harder.

The last four years watching the Minnesota Twins has been a real beating. The only thing keeping me and a lot of other fans from bugging out completely was that we knew there was some help coming via the draft, and that knowledge came from websites like Twins Daily. We have now seen the 2015 version of this team, and it's getting better. Still, this ain't a playoff team, that's pretty clear. The pitching staff is still average at best, the position players are still largely punchless, and the defense is still below par. My question is this: Why stick with this group when we know they won't make the playoffs? Clearly they're not ready to challenge Detroit or KC, a couple teams that themselves don't look Series bound. At what point should this team figure that it's better to bring up guys like Meyer and Buxton, let them get their feet wet at this level, rather than keep them down on the farm in favor of a team that's going nowhere? The Twins brought Aaron Hicks up after tearing up AAA pitching for awhile. He looks much better at the plate, loading up and firing out. Buxton has never had trouble getting aggressive at the plate, or anywhere else. Anything he needs to polish, he can talk to Bruno. Meyer won't get better coaching in AAA than he'll get here, and he needs to see the guys he's got to beat. How much longer?

Max Kepler. He's living the German/American dream!

"The era of fixed emplacements is over." General Patton Statistics is doing for baseball what airplanes have done for war. Standing in the same equi-distant positions is ignoring the tendencies of a hitter. If your team wants an edge, this is one way of doing it. Baseball is supposed to be a fascinating game of looking for advantages. The shift is an interesting innovation, and it will be fascinating to see how it works, how teams will try to counter it, and so on. Of course it won't always work. Pull hitters will learn to hit oppo, or bunt, or try to drive it through the shift. It's already happening every game. I love it.

The one guy not mentioned here is AB Walker III. To me he looks like the LF the Twins will put out there with Buxton and Hicks, with Rosario as the fourth outfielder. Arcia may turn into a much better hitter as he matures. He's been showing signs of easing off his homer swing in order to get more RBI's. He can flip his wrists and hit a drive in the oppo gap with ease, which could raise his average and his RISP. However, Arcia in my opinion will never be an average defender. He flinches away from the wall, he takes bad lines to fly balls, lets too many balls fall in front of him, and lacks foot speed. Good arm, tho. The Twins could settle for Arcia in left, but Walker will develop into a better all around ballplayer. Walker's got just as much power as Arcia, but more athleticism, which implies that he'll become a better defender. Arcia at the moment is a better hitter, but I also expect Walker to refine his approach, at least as much as Arcia. Walker also steals bases, which Arcia will never do.

Congratulation, Aaron Hicks! Let's hope this time Hicks sticks. I wonder whom the Twins will be demoting?

Are people absolutely sure there's nothing physically wrong with Alex Meyer? I'm beginning to wonder if his shoulder, or something else, is putting a hitch in his git-along. Reason I'm saying this is that I'm trying to therapy my way out of a shoulder problem myself. I had a cortisone shot several days ago, and it's helped a lot, but I still can't follow through quite right hitting tennis balls. I have to assume that throwing fastballs at 95mph and sliders at 90 must require that all your parts are nearly 100 percent healthy. A slight problem in his shoulder could affect Meyer's ability to command his pitches with enough accuracy to avoid a lot of walks. Maybe it's even possible that it doesn't even hurt, but is affecting his motion, just enough to get these negative results. Granted, this is just speculation, but it really does seem odd that a guy with so much talent is unable to command the zone effectively at this point in his development.

Pitchers must find that chart absolutely terrifying. A .571 average on the low outside corner?? A .500 average middle in?? Not to mention .333 inside low... Jeebus! Plus, it looks like he's just not swinging at pitches out of the zone. Either throw it down the middle, or walk him. Yikes. Get ready for some tape measure home runs to center field by Trevor Plouffe.

So Aaron Hicks hit a double. Question: Did he steal third? I think the reason Hicks is still in AAA is that Molitor is looking for more than batting average. I think Molitor wants to see Hicks get aggressive in every aspect of his game. Let's see Hicks start noticing more opportunities. Does he bunt to beat a shift? Is he stealing on left handed pitchers? Is he shifting in the outfield, and getting a quick break with the bat? Has he been making plays that other players don't see? Aaron Hicks has the brains to do all this stuff. I wanna see the attitude. I want Hicks to be the clever bastard that makes everybody else look dumb and slow.

I met Trevor May at Twins Fest a few years ago. I thought he looked like Joe Mauer's cousin, he was such a big, sturdy guy. As a pitcher May has improved in just about every important aspect of his game. His balance looks better on the mound, and his command has improved vastly. Adding that change-up is huge, and he's also learning to tweak his curve ball. Truthfully, I thought at first that he had kind of a mediocre ceiling, but would be a reliable workhorse in the middle of the rotation. But if Trevor May keeps refining his game and adding to his bag of tricks, this guy could be really, really good. I do have one request of Paul Molitor and the pitching coach: Please, please insist that your pitchers all finish their deliveries ready to field a baseball. It's worth at least one fewer hit per game, and over the course of the season it's worth at least five fewer pitcher injuries. Every pitcher on the staff can knock down their ERA by knocking down a few more line drives, and save themselves some pain, too. Seriously, if you get hit in the ass by a line drive, not only does it hurt like hell, but you can't tell me that you had pinpoint control of that pitch!

This is a great psychological move for Rosario. See if he likes the coffee in the major league clubhouse. After his pot blunder, the kid may have needed something like this to verify in his mind that he's still highly regarded by the team. I bet he's smiling right now like it's the first time he's seen a sunny day for a couple years. Let's hope he mashes some taters and plays great outfield. Welcome to the big leagues, Eddie Rosario!