Curt

It depends on how many outfielders they take. Both Trumbo, Trout and, possibly, Austin Jackson deserve to be selected over Willingham. No one deserves to be selected over Mauer at catcher.

I believe the Twins could decline Baker's option, making him a free agent, and offer him a more competitive deal.

Since leaving Milwaukee, Plouffe is 8 for 37 with one home run and 13 Ks in ten games. Triple slash .216/.237/.324 for .561 OPS. I know, that is an SSS (small sample size), the season is long and there are many ups and downs. Still... which Plouffe do we see going forward? A streaky one?

Anyone vote?

I believe I was pretty clear that this call didn't need replay. The umpire never asked to see the ball. If he had, he would have made the correct call. I understand why people want replay. I believe umpiring can be improved vastly by using replay to train/improve umpiring. I do not like interrupting the game and increasing their length at all. I prefer the combination of improved performance by human umpires and shorter (at least not longer) games.

Brilliant!

Just imagine how bad umpiring was when games were not televised. Now what we get are mostly mistakes. Without the accountability of replays, the worst calls would have been those made for retribution.

What makes that call REALLY bad is that the outfielder doesn't have the ball in his glove. He never shows the ball. That is the first thing the ump should have checked. I do not advocate replay use during the game (I do advocate it in evaluating umpires) and, pretty clearly in this case, replay was not necessary. If the ump had done his job and verified the fielder had the ball, that would be one thing (not necessarily enough to make the "out" call) but he did not. Bad bad bad bad bad!

Don't confuse my saying that the Twins' should exploit the talent that Valencia has with being a fan of his. I'm not. That the Twins' don't think much of him doesn't impress me at all. The only thing I agree with is "ex MVP." Now you start to see why what the Twins' think doesn't impress me. Finally, something we agree on.

Yes. Glad that is cleared up.

Well, I think we agree though for different reasons. Parmelee should be in the minors, hopefully developing. Valencia is who he is. Use him (correctly) or lose him.

I understand the frustration with Morneau and Valencia. What I do not get is the optimism for Parmelee. At best, he looks to be a .250 hitter with 10-15 homer per year power. More likely, not even that. Valencia has shown he can hit lefties. Morneau is still hitting righties. As a hitter, Parmelee reminds me of Tom Kelly or, more optimistically, Butch Wynegar. I don't know about a Morneau/Valencia platoon but I like the thinking. When mature major leaguers have specialized skills you exploit them to their fullest, when they have weaknesses, limit the opportunities for the opponent to exploit them. Whether you like the guy or not is pretty far down on the checklist.

In June of 1977, Rod Carew had triples in three consecutive games. No biggie? Four triples in five games? Six in nine games? How about eight triples in fourteen games? More fun... Sir Rodney started that month at .365 and hit .486 throughout which brought his month-ending average to .411. He had three four-hit games, seven (more) three-hit games, five two-hit games for a total of fifteen multi-hit games in June. He went 0-4 against the Red Sox on June 4th and 0-3 against the Royals on the eighteenth. His triple slash was .486/.538/.775 for an OPS of 1.313. Fun times.

Jeff Passen dissects MLB's blackout policy and reports on a lawsuit challenging it. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb%E2%80%99s-blackout-problem-keeps-sport-in-dark-ages.html

Did anyone catch Bill Mazeroski on last night's telecast talking about his walk-off homer in 1960 game 7? He said the fence was about 410 feet where he hit it which looked to be straight-left to left-center. I just looked up Forbes Field in Wikipedia: Left Field—360 feet (110 m) Deepest corner—462 feet (141 m) Center Field—442 feet (135 m) Right Field—376 feet (115 m) Cripes! If the batters are bigger and stronger now (they certainly are bigger) and the pitchers throw harder (think back to high school physics) why do we need smaller parks?

"There are no poorly designed hazards in golf. It is the golfer's responsibility to avoid a hazard wherever it is placed." Bobby Jones OK, I can't find the quote but I think I heard Johnny Miller quote him reasonably close to that. The baseball equivalent is that it is the GM's responsibility to man the team with 25 guys and the Manager's responsibility to use them efficiently and effectively. They should probably get together and discuss it. Alternative to expanding rosters: 1. Get rid of DH 2. Call the rule book strike zone including "high" strikes 3. Transition back to four-man rotations 4. Stop the pitch count madness (not the same thing as stop monitoring pitch count) If there is evidence that the five-man rotation transition in the 70's, or the more recent pitch count obsessions have done anything but increase the need for more pitchers, I would be interested to see it. 25 man roster: 8 position players 1 backup catcher 1 backup infielder 1 backup outfielder 4 starting pitchers 7 relief pitchers --- 22 players That leaves three roster positions. Someone other than the two catchers should be able to catch in an emergency. I suggest one long-relief/spot starter (for the occasional [split] double-header) and two big bats off the bench or to platoon (fielding ability a plus). 7 relief pitcher scenario: 2 ninth inning specialists 2 eighth inning specialists 2 seventh inning specialists 1 sixth inning specialist Preferably a mix of lefties and righties and, obviously, mixing and matching allowed as needed. Let us not forget that teams went to 24 man rosters several times including, that most-wonderful of seasons, 1987.

"It is easier to find four starting pitchers than five." - Earl Weaver's Seventh Law Grabbed from here ("Doctoring the Numbers: The Five Man Rotation" in Baseball Prospectus by Rany Jazayerli)

Wow. Confused the hell out of me until I saw the original post was dated April 29.

What would such a thing do?

I was thinking this would be a win-win-win. Twins save a mil or two. Japanese team gets established starter. Nishi gets out of the minors and back to the (relative) big time. No one can be happy as things are.

Nishioka was a career .293 hitter in Japan and won a batting title there in his final season. He was reputed to be one of the top fielding shortstops there. Wouldn't he still have value there? Even now? The Twins would have to eat a large portion of his salary but why wouldn't a team in Japan take him off the Twins' hands and absorb a portion of that salary? Top players there make up to $5 million per year. Perhaps someone would take him for $1 million? Does this ever happen? You would think Nishioka, himself, would find value in getting back to Japan where he could continue his career. In the US, it is hard to imagine him having a major league career. Anyone have any contacts in Japan? PS - I feel bad for Nishioka's translator. What a gig that was, sitting in MLB dugout every game.

Cuddyer loves Coors Field? Home .295/.364/.543 OPS = .906 Away .272/.314/.511 OPS = .825 ----- Total .285/.343/.529 OPS = .872 What about Kubel and Chase Field? Home .350/.429/.641 OPS = 1.069 Away .241/.317/.333 OPS = .650 ----- Total .294/.372/.483 OPS = .855

Excellent article. A lot of marginal MLB ballplayers are superb athletes with so-so-to-miserable mechanics. Bad habits are learned early, reinforced when the special athlete excels over his competitors and then are hard to break due to (however occasional) positive reinforcement, ignorance, stubbornness, ego or stupidity. Kudos to Vavra, et al., for identifying area of improvement and, especially, to Plouffe for heeding the advice and being able to execute the changes. I hope he can keep it up. MLB pitchers are best at finding and exploiting (new) weaknesses of hitters. They never give up. It is what separates them from the animals.

If plucked from 1936 by a time machine, Jesse Owens would finish last in this summer's Olympic games. That is irrelevant. If he was born in 1990, he would be right at the top. Many years after he retired, Ty Cobb was asked what he would hit if he were playing today. He replied, "About .300." Why so low? "Well, remember, I am seventy years old now."

I was hoping we'd get a closer look at Tony Campana this weekend. I think he subbed in CF on Friday and almost caught Morneau's triple. Maybe he'll play today. The Angels' Peter Bourjos is pretty fast too. What's up with his ONE stolen base in TWO attempts this year though?