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.

...I usually prefer mine with tonic and a cucumber. Not quite the same topic, but it sounds good right about now. Liam Hendriks is mentioned in passing in many pitching articles, but rarely something more. I think people forget that the Twins really like this guy. His triple-A numbers are excellent. So what's the deal when he's with the big club? Does he have Franky Liriano Syndrome? I have to believe the last couple years, he's been a head-case and not shown what his true potential is. But it's odd, he flashes it from time to time too, right before he implodes in the 5th or 6th inning. Sounds more like Joe Mays Syndrome. If this kid can figure it out, he's here to stay. I'm betting he's our #4 this year. Correia is already our #5.

I never suggested that he's can't miss. I suggested that he outweighs what is in house, currently. He won't garner as much of a contract as Cespedes either. The decision to me is a no brainer, because you're not bust more than Nishioka at this point. I liked Cespedes' swing more, but I like the aggressive nature of the swing and the power pull. Plays well at Target Field. I think we are on the same page.

I've probably been one of the fools in the world that's followed Jair Jurrjens with some regularity. For that reason, I'm probably higher on him than a lot of people. I wanted the Twins to trade for him previously. Would have liked this flier much more than a couple of the fliers we took thus far. Once in a while, that Twins will have to bring in a guy with some attitude. I don't want nice guys lining our dugout all the time. Not to say Jair is a bad guy, or an attitudey guy, but go after the Sidney Ponson's of the world. Oh wait.

He'll be classified as a free agent, not an international signing. There's been a few posts on here about Diaz. I made one as well begging for the Twins to sign him. This, I believe to be a no-lose scenario if they go after this kid. The 3mil back from Nishioka should go directly into this kids pocket. I don't care if he's in AAA all year. Grab him. He's better than any other SS prospect you have in the entire farm system. There are few no-brainers. This is one of them. That's why Oakland's name popped up again on this kid, just like they nabbed Cespedes last year. I was begging for us to grab him and trade away Span. Span's value wasn't as high as it was this off-season, but still. Diaz could be the guy up the middle for the next 10 years. Then you don't need to worry about continually failing at drafting first round middle infielders a la Trevor Plouffe and Michael Levi. MAKE THE MOVE! Sign him up. Get Tony O to give him some love and instruccion!!!

I think you had me until the Blackburn thing. Best form = .500 (2008/2009) 11-11 with a 4.ERA... but considering... I think we'd take that nowadays. I actually think Mauer and Morneau will have their best M&M year, this year (assuming Morneau is still around). I think that's a reality. I think and hope Parmalee will be alright. When the Twins win... it's because there's something that causes a spark in the clubhouse two or three times in a season. Someone would have to do it at the outset. Hicks perhaps 6-8 weeks later. And then someone else in the second half of the season. So, I think the real fantasy has everything do with pitching. Gibson will have to come up and be a 15-5 type of guy. Diamond will have be Tom Glavine like. Worley will need to a bulldog type of competitor. Hendriks will have to smack himself in the face every morning to remember that he just needs to do the same things he does at AAA. You would need a 5th starter going .500. Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey... as many Minnesotans would say, "ooftah". Asking for a lot. I'll cheer just as loudly with the hope that dreams in 2013 really do come true.

This thread goes a whole bunch of different directions. Let's see if we can get down to it... 1) There's two directions you can go with the losing bit... Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays. Or Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals. Point being, some teams lose and lose and go no where. If you just had the Washington Nationals draft picks without all the FA and trade pickups, they're not having the success they enjoyed last year. 2) Some club decision has to have been made NOT to spend money this year. That's not just Ryan. That's Billy Smith and others making those decisions too. 3) Denard Span was NEVER a stellar outfielder. He's a decent, slightly above average centerfielder with a mediocre arm, that couldn't go BACK on a ball to save his life. 4) Alex Meyer is 22 and already made one bump to A+. The next two years will be the most important to see how he'll shape up. The biggest concern and acknowledgement will be SO/9, to see if he keeps that UP. 5) Trevor May. MAYYYYY. Not Mays. Never will be Mays. It's MAY. Not April. May. As in Trevor MAY turn out to be good. He was 22 at AA. He should get his second chance at AA this year. We'll see if he settles in. 6) The trades won't reveal themselves until 2-3 years from now, on how well TR did. 7) Most of the time, Gardy only carries one or two lefties in a bullpen. Perkins and Duensing and Robertson. Twins have a lot invested into Robertson already. They're handing this kid his chance. Just like they gave Plouffe his chance last year (and into this year) and Valencia his chance the year before (plus some). After this, we'll know whether he sticks or not. Too many variables. I could keep going.

Last year, I emailed Mr. Ryan. In retrospect, that was probably a very silly thing to do. I'm sure it annoyed him greatly. I emailed to beg Mr. Ryan to sign the likes of Josh Willingham and Yoenis Cespedes, INSTEAD of Michael Cuddyer. Now, for various reasons, I pulled Willingham from my points, because I had much better thoughts on Cespedes. Point being, Cespedes and Willingham were going to be bargains compared to the likes of Cuddyer (and perform just as well or better). It ended up being better. Part of my argument was asking that Denard Span be traded amidst these moves (Got my wish a year later, on that one). Now, here we find ourselves staring at opportunities once again and with an open payroll. I get the Twins saving money before they have to start signing these young kids to bigger deals, but I see a few options out there worth while. Take Aledmys Diaz. He's a 6'1" right handed hitting shortstop that defected from Cuba. Not every Cuban has turned up roses, but I don't see anything shiny in our cupboard for shortstops right now either. Plenty of OFers. Eddie Rosario is our lone possible sunshine at a middle infield spot (2B) down the road. I say take a shot, throw a few million in the pot and get an almost MLB ready guy at 22yrs of age. I doubt I'll be emailing this one... but I don't really see a point as to why they're not kicking the tires on this one. Get Tony Oliva in there and let's take a look.

We all long for the Octobers of 1987 and 1991. Granted, now we're ending seasons in November. The point is, we all want to be back there. And more than anything, we want to be playing beyond the ALDS. Is this what we'll be looking at in a few years? C/DH-Joe Mauer 1B-Chris Parmalee 2B-Eddie Rosario 3B-Miguel Sano SS-Jorge Polanco LF-Oswaldo Arcia CF-Byron Buxton RF-Aaron Hicks It's kinda funny looking at it, Joe Mauer will be called Grampa in a locker room like this. We could have fun with speculation as to whom the 4th outfielder would be... along with the backup/secondary catcher. Mauer will likely trade off DHing with a Parmalee type. I know with the exception of those two guys, it would be a fast team! I don't expect this perfect storm of bodies to approach the majors and the Twins be this golden, all home grown team, but it would be fun it they could rise up much like we did at the beginning of the 2000's and mix in one or two decent FA's. It would be fun to speculate on the 5man rotation as well, but I can't as the Twins always figure a way to get their starting pitching prospects hurt. Anyone counting the days til Meyer and May get TJ surgery too? Santa, this is my wish list in a year or two or three.

Spirit... I kinda think you're an idiot. And I'm really disappointed in 99% of the comments below. Some guy said, "I read the article"... um, did you really? Did you read the original Kevin Baxter issue too? I don't get, maybe you skimmed. Torii is outspoken. Yes. It's refreshing that someone can do it with some intelligence. Nothing ignorant about what was said nor HOW he said it. Media loves playing with context. Media loves taking a story and manipulating it, TO MANIPULATE YOU! This is a waste of a story. Read Torii's thoughts after. They're not the typical "oh yeah, I'm sorry so I don't get into trouble"... it's more the, "eff you for trying to make me look like an ass when I was being candid about how things are in the locker room"... I give him credit. Stop being so effin offended by every little thing. That's directed at everyone here who thinks they found something out about their long lost hero. What a bunch of crap. Grow up.

I'm low on just about that whole list. Farnsworth has the straightest fastball in all of baseball. Brandon Lyon has probably looked the best as late as last year. But that'd have to be for a major league contract.