spideyo

They also still had Pujols when they let him go I think

It very well could be that in the Cardinal's organization, he was clogging the way for guys who are projected to have a much higher upside. I don't know a darn thing about their farm system though, so couldn't say for sure.

I just want to see a lot of guys touch third base this season. I don't care if they steal it, get bunted over, hit triples/homers, whatever. I want to see Joe Vavra tear a rotator cuff from throwing up too many stop signs and keep-going signs.

I don't think they'll move Sano until they absolutely have to. Right now, they have Morneau, Parmelee, Colabello, Mauer, and Doumit that can cover first. They could even slide Plouffe over there in a pinch. Besides Plouffe, who else do they have in AAA and the bigs that can hit at all and play 3b? An adequate fielding Sano at 3B is FAR more valuable to the Twins than a fantastic fielding Sano at 1b

I wonder how much better Deduno would have done last night if Mauer hadn't been on the team to give them the full report on him. The biggest thing last year that I noticed is that while he walked a lot of guys, the number of those walks that came around to score was surprisingly low. Not sure what, if any, stat would measure that. His shorter outings often seemed more because he drove his pitch count up because of the walks, rather than that he was actually pitching poorly.

To be fair, I posted that pre-spring training and had no idea Hicks would come roaring out like he has. I think if Colabello could at least cover 3B in a pinch, there might be a chance they'd carry both him and Thome, but as it stands they are both just too limited in what they could cover on the field. A day-to-day injury from Hicks, Dozier, Escobar, Carroll, Plouffe or Mastroianni would completely hamstring Gardy's lineup options. Now, if we could get a 5 man rotation that could get 6+innings every game, we theoretically could carry 6 guys in the pen, and have a bench of Mastro, Flori, Carroll, Thome and Colbello. That would be pretty sweet. Chances of it happening are incredibly small though

Pretty close to what I posted a while back, except I thought the twins might sign Podsednik and had Dozier hitting 8th (with everyone above him sliding up) http://twinsdaily.com/minnesota-twins-talk/5000-opening-day-lineup.html Saw your bench guesses. I don't think Thome and Colabello both make it. If Escobar is the emergency catcher, they're going to want two guys that can cover 2b/3b/SS

I think he definitely makes it if we can carry only 12 pitchers. If we have to carry 13, I don't see it happening. Now if only he could play a position other than RF and 1b...

Hey, 2-8 with a HR and 4 RBI's is pretty darn good for Butera

I don't see Granderson as much of a surprise. Yes, guys fill out and develop more power as they get more into the game, but to go from being a 20+ HR guy to a 40+ hr guy at the age of 30? Quite suspicious, especially when it comes just a year after he joined a team with a number of players either rumored or confirmed to have taken PED's.

Can we sign him to a deal where we can take him off the 25 man and make him a coach if he hits less than .350?

I really, REALLY hate to mention it....but..... Beer prices are going up at Target Field this year. If you are a season ticket holder, you get the 10% off, but it ONLY applies if you have the card with you and present it before you pay or before they close out your tab. I don't remember exactly the prices, but I think the average will be $8. I suggest this: Reef Dram Sandal | Uncrate

Any chance Colabello could spend a few months in Rochester learning 3b/RF? If he could backup Plouffe and/or platoon with Parmelee in RF he'd be getting darn close to locking in a spot on the 25-man. Parmelee would have to have a pretty damn impressive start of the season AND they would have to have another OF tearing it up to make it worth trading Morneau. We've gotten used to about half a season's worth of production from Morneau, so we've kinda forgotten just how good he can be. I like Parm, but he is nowhere near MVP Morneau when he's healthy. Plouffe's performance won't really factor in to wether or not they trade Morneau or Willingham, unless they plan to trade one of them for a 3b and send Plouffe to the OF

I work for DNC at Target Field, right now primarily in the lunch room where the Twins staff eats and during non-baseball events, such as this weekend's Food and Wine show. Also, I'm very good at shmoozing and getting info out of people without them realizing how incredibly nosy I am.

A few new things: 1: "Stand 141", which I mentioned in my previous thread as being the new home for most of the local brews, is the stand located just inside Gate 34 which also has windows that open onto the Plaza 2: I spoke with some folks from Summit yesterday and while there is no official word as of yet, the Summit Townball Tavern deal may have fallen through due to problems with the Anheuser-Busch Inbev contract for the stadium. Clauses in that contract may be preventing the Twins from selling sponsorship rights to any other beer vendor without their approval. I really really hope this is just a false rumor, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true. I still think it should be the Summit Roof Deck. 3: There will be a number of new bartenders in Legends and Met Club to start the year off. When I say new, I mean "never ever bartended before in their life". I'm not going to name names, but just be patient with them, and don't be surprised if it takes awhile to get your drink, at least at the start of the season. 4: There is apparently going to be a dedicated Bloody Mary bar in the stadium, possibly in the Met Club. They will probably be ditching the little coors light cans and just giving a draught beer chaser (probably still coors). They will probably be jacking up the price as well. 5: Mike's Hard Lemonade is no longer being produced in plastic bottles. At the beginning of the season, we may be serving some in plastic still, but hopefully not too much as they stopped bottling in plastic in the fall I believe. It will instead be offered in cans, which may make it easier to incorporate a wider range of Mike's flavors into our bars (many flavors were previously only available in glass bottles) In other news, they started scraping snow off the field Friday, and game day staff should be returning to work in the next week or two. As soon as I can confirm or deny the return of the dreaded "Dance-off", I'll let you know.

Stealing home seems like it relies a whole lot more on aggressiveness and base running smarts than just straight speed. I don't think Gomez had the discipline to pull it off. Revere probably could have pulled it off, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him stealing like crazy over in the national league. If the season starts tanking, they should just let Mastro steal whenever he wants.

Seriously though, I think you'd have to go with Mauer. He's got a strong bat, and holds down an absolutely critical position on the field as well as anyone. Any of the other guys offered up could easily have a career derailing injury and never see the bigs. Sano could become a huge bat, but I wouldn't build a franchise around a guy solely for his bat, unless he's hitting homers every at bat. It's waaaay too early to know exactly what Buxton's future holds. Meyer has more experience, but he's got a long way to go to get to the big leagues and it's incredibly easy to get hurt throwing 90+ mph. Who knows, he could end up getting shifted to the bullpen or become a closer.

Dinkleman!!!!

Besides that, if Morneau, Mauer, and Parmelee have really good years, they don't really need another big lefty bat.

I guess I only was looking at the normal June draft, and forgot the "secondary" june draft they used to have, mostly because I didn't know it existed

I'm still annoyed that blackout restrictions apply on the paid app. Even when it is the MLB "free game of the week"

Yeah, how's Levi Michael doing? Any chance he'll turn into something decent? As an aside, does anyone ever get switched TO shortstop from another position?

So really, the only top drafted SS we've ever had as a franchise that actually was really successful as a SS was Jay Bell, and we got rid of him for some dutchman

I did some digging, and discovered some interesting stuff about the history of the Twins drafting shortstops. Here's a list of ALL the shortstops that the Twins have drafted in the first three rounds that actually played in the big leagues: 1st Round: 1965 - Eddie Leon, came up with Cleveland, played 601 games over 8 years with the Indians, White Sox, and 1 game with the Yankees 1970 - Bob Gorinski, played in 54 games with the Twins at DH and OF 1975 Rick Sofield, played in 207 with the Twins in OF 1978 - Lenny Faedo, played 174 games over 5 years with the Twins 1984 - Jay Bell, spent 18 years in the bigs, mostly in the National League, never in a Twins uniform 1989 - Chuck Knoblauch, played a total of 13 games at SS in his 12 years 1997 - Michael Cuddyer, has played every position except catcher and SS 2004 - Trevor Plouffe, his 55 games at SS for the Twins is second only to Lenny Faedo (in games played as a Twin) 2nd Round: 1994 - Cleatus Davidson, got a cup of coffee for 12 games in 1999 3rd Round: 2001 - Jose Morales, actually managed to play 2 games at 2b in his last big league season in 2011

Glad to see that Rob is willing to admit mistakes.