righty8383

Hopefully Jason Bulger can get that ERA down from 135.00, also that 18.00 WHIP could come down a little.

The 3-0 strike call on Towles was something that would've had me irrate if it was a regular season game. The pitch was 8 inches (not exaggerating) inside, then Towles grounded out the next pitch. Glen Perkins looked great. Benson does look overmatched. He hit poorly in winter ball and that is carrying over to spring. I hope he figures things out by the time the season starts.

[ Dozier started in Eliz because....I'm not sure why, but he did. Where he was drafted makes a difference. Dozier was drafted in the 8th round.

Would that really be a bad thing if Rochester was no longer our affiliate?

Division 1 baseball is comparable to rookie ball and Michael has 3 years there. That and being a 1st round pick means there is no way he is playing rookie ball.

Cut him.....

I heard he had a dispute with the Twins at the end of the '09 season regarding some stuff that was stolen from him. I also heard he didn't like the seats that were reserved for him at Target field so he did not renew in 2010. Thats just what I heard...

People should take a look at David Ortiz' spray chart. He is far from a dead pull hitter. Thats why that interview a while back has always puzzled me.

This is my hunch...Joe Vavra probably was all in favor of letting Hardy just do his thing. According to Hardy it was Rod Carew who instucted him to hit the other way in batting practice. Vavra out of respect for Carew did not want to tell Hardy not to listen to him(Carew) so he just kept his mouth shut (Vavra's mistake). Again this is just a hunch on my part but it would explain some things.

I don't want to see Revere in center or LF on a regular basis. He should be limited to pinch runner and spot starter. His arm is too much of a liability. Do you remember last year when AJ Pierzyski scored the winning run from 2nd base on a line drive to center. Revere made the throw on 5 hops and AJ scored easily standing up. The arm is more of a liability that some people understand. Lets say he cuts off a hit to the gap that nobody else would've got to, the hitter gets a double anyway because Revere can't get the ball back to the infield quick enough. Offensively, his speed is his only asset. He needs to be able to get his OBP over .350 to be worth having in the lineup IMO. The farthest I've seen him hit a ball was that shot in Detroit when he tried to get an inside the park HR. That ball went about 350 in the air. His lack of power allows outfielders to come way in and take away the short singles. Ultimately Benson will be the best option for CF. His overall defense is better than Revere and he is more productive offensively. Some may say Benson is not quite ready and I will say, neither is Revere. The only difference is Revere will never be unless he can drag bunt and take more walks.

A releif pitcher with the 2nd pick? Of course not. The Twins do not have a single prospect in thier entire system that has the potential to be an ace. Every team should have at least a couple guys that have that potential even if it is not likely he will live up to it. But the Twins have NOBODY. The #2 pick is our chance to finally get that guy with the stuff to be #1 starter.

Thank you for shating all that JT. I was thinking a Sunday Monday. My days off are Monday and Tuesday so this way I would only have to use one vacation day(Sunday). The 3rd and 4th look good. I was also thinking the 10th and 11th. I noticed they play the Wisconsing Timber Rattlers in Appleton which is an even shorter drive away from the Twin Cities.

I don't mind criticism as long as its construnctive. The Twins are often accused of things that just aren't true. You mentioned being cheap as one of them. The one that I find proposterous is when people suggest that the Twins suppress power both hitting and pitching. I remember last year, a star tribune article about the great season Sano and Rosario were having with the Etwins. One commenter said something like "just wait till Vavra gets a hold of them and turns them into slap hitting singles hitters". Some people really beleive this is happening. The same people probably think they intend to turn Hudson Boyd into a soft tossing control pitcher.

Even if Shooter Hunt WAS still with the Twins, he wouldn't be a top 25 prospect.

You must really be excited for this upcoming season considering some of the names Beloit will be featuring this year. I am trying to talk the wife into doing a family road trip to Beloit some time this June. I threw in the idea of a detour to Wisconsin Dells which made her a little more open to the idea.

I don't like how there is only 10 posts/page. Should be at least 20. Not a big deal obviously, but just a thought.

I disagree with Boyd and Harrison being so low. I know they are both yet to play pro ball, but when ranking prospects, max potential is one of if not THE most important thing. In my opinion, both these guys are top 10 when you look at max potential alone.

You are just another Twins fan that wrongfully assumes that Vavra tells all his players to hit the ball the other way. Perhaps This little piece from Twinkietown's Barandon Warne's interview with Joe Vavra will shed some light on the subject... <<<BW: So there’s a bit of a preconceived notion that the organization is more of a "go the other way/don’t care much about home runs" philosophy-wise. Care to put that to bed ? JV: No, it’s not that at all. I mean, we have a lot of young hitters, and we teach young hitters balance. You certainly don’t want to take their power away. Or say, take a pull hitter and make him go the other way. You don’t want to take away the strength from the kid; that just shocks him. You want him to be able to use it, but you also want to be able to push the outfield back on the opposite side of the field. Probably 70 percent or more of the pitches are likely to be away, so they do have to learn how to hit the ball the other way, and have some kind of balance to the playing field. If the field is tilted, they better have outstanding power to the pull side. You see a David Ortiz, who we had in this organization, and well, the ballpark changes the way you go about your hitting. I think the perception with Target Field is that you can’t hit home runs here, and they get that in their mind. I’m totally of the opposite mindset; you can drive the ball out of this ballpark. It’s certainly playing smaller than it did last year. This singles, slap-hitting stuff, that’s Denard Span to a degree, and it’s Ben Revere. They’re that type of guys; they’ve gotta get on base and gotta attack the opposite side, but they also gotta be able to pull it. You can’t be just on one side of the plate, so to speak, and that includes those two guys.>>> If this doesn't convince you otherwise then I have nothing further to say.

I think a common misconception people have about Scott Baker is that he is just another Twins' "pitch to contact" guy. On the contrary... As he showed last year before getting injured he is very capable of striking guys out. He is nothing like Nick Blackburn, Brian Duensing, Liam Hendriks etc... Those guys have to pitch the ball down to keep the ball on the ground and avoid the HR ball. Baker should throw a lot more at the waste and letters. His fastball is the rising kind and hitters often get under it. One drawback is that this can create a lot of foul balls causing the pitch count to rise. Then there is his above average slider to compliment the fastball. Prior to last year I had one major complaint about Baker. His willingness to give the hitters something to hit when he is ahead in the count. A fastball in the strike zone with an 0-2 count is unnaccaptable. I'm not sure who to blame, Scott Baker for lack of killer instinct, or the Twins for there overuse of the pitch count. If he throws a slider low and away or a shoulder high fastball and the batter doesn't bite, that is one more pitch that he has thrown. God forbid a Twins pitcher gets his pitch count in the 120's. Let me ask this...If pitch count is so important in preventing injuries, why does it seem like relief pitchers are getting TJ surgury at nearly the same rate as starters? Honestly I think mechanics, strength & conditioning and even luck are bigger factors in a pitcher staying healthy. My guess is that the pitch count is a product of teams doing whatever they feel is necessary to protect thier investments. Last year I was pleased to see Baker attempting to miss more bats when ahead in the count instead of just letting guys put the ball in play. Now I ask this...was it because Baker finally adopted that killer instinct that a guy with his stuff should have? Or was the poor defensive play behind making him feel like he had to get hitters out himself to have a chance of winning? Whatever the reason I want to see more. If Baker stays healthy this year he should be able to win 15 games and finish in the top 10 in strike outs

I think a common misconception people have about Scott Baker is that he is just another Twins' "pitch to contact" guy. On the contrary... As he showed last year before getting injured he is very capable of striking guys out. He is nothing like Nick Blackburn, Brian Duensing, Liam Hendriks etc... Those guys have to pitch the ball down to keep the ball on the ground and avoid the HR ball. Baker should throw a lot more at the waste and letters. His fastball is the rising kind and hitters often get under it. One drawback is that this can create a lot of foul balls causing the pitch count to rise. Then there is his above average slider to compliment the fastball. Prior to last year I had one major complaint about Baker. His willingness to give the hitters something to hit when he is ahead in the count. A fastball in the strike zone with an 0-2 count is unnaccaptable. I'm not sure who to blame, Scott Baker for lack of killer instinct, or the Twins for there overuse of the pitch count. If he throws a slider low and away or a shoulder high fastball and the batter doesn't bite, that is one more pitch that he has thrown. God forbid a Twins pitcher gets his pitch count in the 120's. Let me ask this...If pitch count is so important in preventing injuries, why does it seem like relief pitchers are getting TJ surgury at nearly the same rate as starters? Honestly I think mechanics, strength & conditioning and even luck are bigger factors in a pitcher staying healthy. My guess is that the pitch count is a product of teams doing whatever they feel is necessary to protect thier investments. Last year I was pleased to see Baker attempting to miss more bats when ahead in the count instead of just letting guys put the ball in play. Now I ask this...was it because Baker finally adopted that killer instinct that a guy with his stuff should have? Or was the poor defensive play behind making him feel like he had to get hitters out himself to have a chance of winning? Whatever the reason I want to see more. If Baker stays healthy this year he should be able to win 15 games and finish in the top 10 in strike outs