Haddyz

Hermann will be first to go back down, I have no doubt. Until Burton and Pressly are 'completely' healthy, no bullpen arm is going anywhere. The real question is, who will go back down once Hicks is ready to come back. You alluded to that too, but I'm going to have to say Clete Thomas gets sent down (assuming the Twins can do that without losing the rights to him). If Pressly is all the way back, Thomas can't be sent down without hitting waivers, then Fien/Thielbar may be the last one at the table.

Fantastic article, Seth. Read it through Twins Centric this morning. I often hope people can understand the little things. I think baseball is much more about the tiny details. The little instances and not necessarily just the wins, losses and global being as a sport. Every pitch is a new situation. Not an element I really care about, but interesting enough for a note on Vavra. I'm not sure if it's luck, aggression or the fact that the Twins have the most speed this season they've had since being in the dome... but Vavra has gotten it right so far at 3B. I think he's a hard working, deeply caring coach. I'm not sure how that transfers to success (especially as a hitting coach) because I'm - we're - not inside the dugout, cage and clubhouse with him. Generally, I view coaches as how they affect their players. The impressionability. I've seen plenty of coaches not know jack and get through to their players and I've seen plenty of talented, knowledgeable coaches get nowhere with players. Just wonder how often our coaching staff's delivery falls on deafened ears and closed eyes.

Move along... nothing to see here. ...talking about Harang, not your post. Although... eh... ew... no Harang please.

Thank you for adding to this one. You're right on. Because the Twins honestly don't care about Parmelee in RF. They care about Parmelee at 1B. If they have no one that can claim the 1B position, in season, or next season, then they have to retain Morneau with at least that qualifying offer for a year. Or we will be watching Miguel Sano move to 1B immediately at Fort Myers/New Britain. Parmelee might hit .215 to open the season again, but he'll settle into a .250/.350/.450 kind of guy once the confidence is there. Now, for a RF or 1B, that's not fantastic by any stretch, but it's serviceable until someone can take it over. Anyway, he has ZERO confidence right now. Look at how Aaron Hicks first 3 games have gone. Way too similar for our tastes. They both just need that confidence and they'll settle in and get rolling. If you wait long enough, he has the same plate makeup as Jim Thome, with a little less pop.

I can't understand this concept. Who OK'd this? Saliva, fine, I get it... BOOM. White Sox players lipping to it. What the... What I like even more is the article that follows where the guy rips into Hawk Harrelson even more. And I thought I was the only one that genuinely despised that television voice/character. Effin White Sox.

1: Good plate discipline. On-base potential. Exceptional speed is desired, but still just a plus. Catalyst. Spark plug. Etc. 2: Good "situational" hitter. Ability to do multiple things well, such as moving the first guy on base over. Opposite field/spray hitter. Bunter. Good plate discipline. On-base potential. Some speed is desired, but not as necessary. 3: Generally seen as the best hitter on the team, with a healthy mix of average and power. Ability to drive the ball and drive in runs. Extra-base potential. 4: RBI guy. Some people are just RBI machines that sniff out driving in runs. This is the guy you want here. Power is desired, as it can produce a number of runs in one swing. Extra-base potential is more necessary. Protection for #3 hitter. 5: Protection for #4 hitter. Not a surprise, but generally your 4th or 5th best hitter and 3rd best RBI guy. Power isn't overly necessary, but yes, the extra-base potential is usually the driver. 6: A player that can combine some speed and strength is ideal, because they can be seen as a secondary catalyst, post clean-up hitter. 7: Big Risk/Reward guy. Lower average and on-base potentials, but greater extra-base/power potential. If the team has a lack of power, then look for a secondary situational hitter here. 8: Worst average/on-base/extra-base potentials. Basically someone named Escobar, Florimon or Dozier. Sometimes they're the slowest too. 9: NL - Pitcher/Pinch Hitter. AL - Speed. Generally seen as a secondary lead-off person. On-base potential is a heavier ideal than batting average potential.

It's fun. Glad you stand by it. Your inspiration, inspired me too.

Perhaps you're right. Perhaps I paid attention to the skies and "hot air" long enough to pick up a good amount of information to make a fairly accurate prediction of conduct. I don't really care. You simply received the brush intended for many. It's just like when a manager makes an example of one players mistake for all to see. I don't believe your post was ONLY intended to find out forum guest's experience with the game. If that were the case, I don't think you would have titled it as you did, with a jab at whomever said that. Oh well.

This post actually frustrates me as there's a lot not to like about it. In my mind, I imagine you and so many others with this attitude being the one's that boo at the game, be-it Mauer or any Yankee or any player/coach for that matter. Lesson to everyone. Don't boo. Oh, and another thing... "The Wave" is a DEFENSIVE rally cry. NOT for when our team is hitting. It's probably getting old, me backing up Seth on multiple postings. But he touched on some excellent points. No disagreements there, but I'll go a step further. First... My credentials: Amateur Baseball. DII-DIII level players. Still playing. Also have coached baseball for 11 years, high school, legion and amateur. Yes, you can know about game, but no, you'll never "know" the game. You will never understand what any of those players undertake. Even playing at my level for several years... or those other guys at Midway Stadium... or anyone else that won't even sniff AA... have but an idea, just a glimpse into what it really is. I play this game 40 times a year. Granted I'm not working out, practicing, fine-tuning my body year-round, but 40 games kicks my azz. 162 is incredible. And then to maintain consistency. Holy EFF. These guys and this sport are truly spectacular, beyond our scopes of understanding. So, I don't even buy the "at some level" argument from whomever on whatever board posted it. I think much more highly of fastpitch DI and Olympic team women than I do of some baseball players. I think they get it more readily than I would. I semi-apologize for harping, but no one should ever presume they "know" no matter what they pick-up from watching. It's like claiming you know what a poet or song-writer or artist was representing in their last piece. Try again, I'd say. I complain about why Gardy doesn't bunt more in certain situations, but he and TK live by different mentalities and understanding of what their players are capable of. We can all speculate it, but chances are we'll never get that deep. Only "some" of us are that lucky.

Well put. I was very excited when I saw the trades made (during the winter meetings). Hopefully they do turn out to be terrific. Needless to say the trades made during Bill's turn, weren't the greatest. The one I thought was good, was Gomez for Hardy. That could have aided us more the last couple years. I think Ryan does an exceptional job at keeping the minor league (namely AAA) stocked with decent depth. That may not be MLB talent, but often people with MLB experience are making up the rotations until they can stockpile young, good arms, readying them. Gardenhire makes a lot of mistakes during games, especially those against NY teams, especially within the playoffs. That's his only knock you'll hear from me. But anyone touting themselves a "Pat Meares Fan" needs to be closely monitored alright, but probably much more so in some asylum. Unless it's a joke, in which case, hilarious! That's like saying Denny Hocking is amazing. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

I talked this up a bit in one of the other posts. His footwork has gone downhill every year, especially on blocking. If you notice his footwork from catching to throwing is incredibly worse. Now tag-team that along with worse pitchers for getting runners out. Spells disaster.

Kwak, you're absolutely wrong. Twins constantly talk about how Mauer likes to call the game himself. I WISH the dugout was calling the game. I still pray that they take the pitch calling AWAY from him. Often when there are guys on base, the field calls from Jerry White are what Mauer gets to view. What you need to look closely at is if there's a coach in the dugout giving signs. Nope. Try again Kwaker.

Wow, stringer bell, I couldn't disagree with you more. As a catcher for over 20 years, pitch calling is ridiculously important. Now, while Mauer enjoyed better years with better pitchers, his pitch calling is by far one of the worst for a starting catcher in the league. I will knock Mauer for this until I die. Go back to watching someone like Henry Blanco. Butera works well with some guys. You'll see the obvious difference. Mauer gets screwed sometimes because of how bad a pitcher misses. He's gotten lazy as a catcher. His footwork has gone downhill every year. His blocking, downhill, every year. Sad part is how obvious it is. The differnce between me calling a game and one of the other catchers on the team I play/coach... are hits, quality hits and runs, every single game. Same pitchers, different catcher calling a game.

Cracks me up Kwak, I was thinking the same thing when I read this post earlier today. How can you assert that. Twins wouldn't bring anyone in to play CF until last week or two of Spring Training, seeing as the other options would all have to look overmatched and overwhelmed. Mastroianni hasn't shown that in his body of work yet. Benson has. Hicks, we're sure to find out. Florimon isn't going anywhere unless someone else is brought in a la Diaz. Dozier, I guess, could be magically better, since he claims to have figured his stuff out, but I see him as making the club as a 2B. I see Carroll supplanting all three of them, much like Punto did back in the day. Escobar only makes the club if the Twins Dozier bombs in spring training. I don't think Butera makes the big club even with the arbitration earning of 750k. At the outset of the season, there should be two catchers... Mr. 120 games this season and Doughboy. But what am I saying, who else are they going to have to weigh the bench down? 4th OF - Mastroianni (Hicks should earn the spot). Backup INF - Carroll (Situational as Plouffe, Florimon and Dozier will be on rotation) 3rd guy?! - Maybe it is between Butera and Escobar. This should be a basher, masher, crasher type. Don't think that'll happen either. The Twins keep 12 pitchers for sure, but this year, with Pressley and Harden, along with a few others... I actually think it will be 13. Especially given the Twins don't want to start out 5 or more games behind in the first few weeks.

I've been high on some Hendriks as well. I've watched more than handful of games where Hendriks has the hitters fooled initially, getting good ground balls, etc... but by the third time around the lineup... goodbye mr. spaulding (in our case, mr. rawlings). I like the comparison to Scott Baker. I actually deleted that part of my original post. I think Baker had a lot of mental, get through the tough stuff, issues up front. He sorted them out with some positive thinking guru, if I remember correctly. Not sure if that's something Hendriks needs or if he just needs to pull on his big boy pants and dig in. Here's hoping the man shows up and is one of those picks to click in '13. I would like to finish the year with Hendriks and Gibson, both, finding some consistency. Prediction is that they bring Gibson up AFTER 6 weeks (unless a pitcher gets hurt). Hicks starts the season with the big club (unless he has a disastrous spring). Hendriks slotted as #4/5 right out the gate.