daan4786

I like Deduno.. I think he can still be effective with the wild fastball. He doesnt really know where the balls gonna go when he throws a fastball, so it must be hard for hitters to sit on his fastball, and generally the best hitters are fastball hitters. Plus, his curveball is his best pitch. Yeah, its easy for hitters to lay off the fastballs three feet out of the zone, but if half of Dedunos fastballs are out there it seems like it would be a bad approach for hitters to look for a nice fastball to hit, and they aren't going to hit his curveball hard very often. I also think that Deduno's fastballs are so off sometimes because he's scared of grooving one down the middle, and thats why he hasnt really been hit hard. He's been effective with 3 ball counts and runners on (as far as I know) which might be luck, but i think its just hard to make good contact off of him, and thats why he's been so successful so far. He is walking a fine line though, because a bad pitch will hurt him worse when he walks so many guys.

Its not about valencia for me, its that your saying that morneau is incapable of improving against lefties. The guy took most of two years off because his head was messed up. Now he's back and hitting the ball hard- plenty of homers and rbis, although his batting average is low because he's struggling against lefties. Hitting left-handed pitching is difficult for left handed hitters, so isn't it possible that taking all that time off left him with less confidence and changed his approach? He's the same person, the same excellent hitter, but he might need to see more lefties and change his approach (maybe swing a little less) to get back to maybe 80% of where he was in his prime.

Is overall batting average lower now than over MLB history? I think that would be a better indicator than the average amount of no hitters per season. As for the K-rate being higher now, I think that power hitting is at more of a premium, so batters are swinging harder. The harder you swing the harder it is to make contact, so it is a little bit easier now to strike someone out. Plus, I think there is more effort put into finding and developing good pitchers now than in the past, although that might be offset by the effort put into finding and developing good hitting.

Rockies trading Matt Holliday for CarGo and Huston Street. I thought it was a terrible trade until CarGo went off.

I think defense and offensive scarcity at the catcher position probably push his value up a little bit. I think he won a couple of gold gloves at a tougher position than Wright or Holliday or Ortiz.

I mostly agree, but I think the Twins are doing it right with Parmelee. Hes been hot since he got called up last year and seems confident. The coaches showing confidence in him will only help him: baseball is more mental than physical. Investing in his upside makes sense, even at his age; I hear he's a real hard worker, so he'll do what he can to make adjustments. And even if they were wrong, and Parmelee is too young for the big leagues and doesn't produce, they can bring up Burroughs to replace him and let him get some time at AAA.

I hope the twins get gausman- we went to high school together, and I had got to catch him one time, and he's got some stuff. Throws upper 90's, but what I like about him is how he throws. He uses his legs a lot and has a rubber arm- I don't see him having arm problems ever.

Well I like the situation we have with our outfield, because a couple of those guys wont pan out, but they all have enough upside where we should be able to get a couple of quality starters and maybe an all star. I would think that by the time they all should be pushing for the big leagues we would have a better idea of who is or isn't going to pan out. Best case scenario, all four outfielders are deserving of playing time. If thats the case, we can either trade one away for another position of need, or hold on to them all, assuming that at least one wont prove themselves long term. I'd rather the latter happens, because that way you don't risk trading the wrong guy away.

I think it'll depend on how well they hit with runners on, especially with runners in scoring position. Home runs are guaranteed runs, but you need another hit to bring a double or triple in. Nick Nelson also wrote about the 2008 team, with little power, had a ridiculous line with runners in scoring position, batting like 300. Because of this, I think it'll be hard to replicate the 2008 season; we'll need some clutch hitting and its kind of hard to count on clutch hitting.

The catchers should block the plate. Baseball is, in the end, about entertaining the fans and home plate collisions are fun to watch. Plus, it adds another element to the play. If the ball beats the runner to third, the runners going to be out unless the 3rd baseman messes up and misses the tag. At home, the runner can either try to dodge the tag, or knock the ball loose. It makes a play at the plate more exciting in anticipation. If we can't allow this in baseball, how can we justify football as a sport?

Wasn't Mauer's injury problems last year largely due to the surgery he had limiting the time he had to prepare physically for the season? Now he has a whole year to work out and get into the shape to play in 140+ games. Hes probably somewhat embarrassed about last season, so that will only drive him more. I don't think we can deny his hitting ability; his hand-eye coordination and his approach, and if he has a full offseason to develop a solid base, I don't see why he can't get some power back.