nicksaviking

Booing Mauer is pointless and unproductive. He is not coming through in the clutch but really, who is? I think one can call into question his priorities sometimes however. It does seem like he is very concerned with sustaining his reputation as an elite hitter at the expense of taking cuts at the best pitches. I was happy to see Joe take a swing at a first pitch strike last night, but he needs to do more of that. He takes pride in working the count, and he should, but if pitchers are grooving fastballs on pitch one because they know he won't swing, he's doing the team a disservice by passing up what often turns out to be the most crushable pitch. The one other point of contention has been brought up by TK during the broadcasts the last couple nights. Joe is not pulling the ball to the outfield, which also does the team a diservice when when runners are on base. No one goes first to third and no one is going to tag from second when the ball is hit to left field. I can't say he hasn't been trying to take the ball to right, he just seems to be grounding out weakly to first when he does.

And the slow promotion of the pitchers really says something considering the Twins almost always take college arms which normally are much faster to promote.

Shane's right, there is just no other way to get a front line starter, and you need two or three of them to compete these days. The Twins will never give a pitcher more than a four year deal, and the top guys ask for double that and usually settle for between 5-7 years. The only hope for the team is to get a stud in the system, then after a season or two offer to buy out a couple arbitration years in exchange for 2 free agent years and have him locked up for the first eight years of his career.

The call was bad but you probably don't deserve to win if your team strands 13 runners.

What more needs to be seen to replace Capps with Perkins as closer? I think it's safe to assume Capps would not have mowed down Gonzalez, Ortiz and Youkalis in a late game situation.

I'm on board with all of this except I would't consider a four year deal long term. The quality of player who sings a four year deal is usually quite different from the type that sign seven year deals.

Mauer's contract should not hold this club back in the least. The Rockies were just fine handing out large contracts to their young stars despite the fact that Todd Helton was on the books for one of the largest and worst contracts in the history of the game. The Rockies payroll is $20M less than the Twins. The reason the Twins are going to have trouble signing other big time players is because the Twins refuse to give out long term deals to anyone not in the organization, and never to pitchers. Generally speaking, the longer the contract, the less money the team will have to spend on the player on a yearly basis, as teams often get a discount by adding years. It's front office philosophy, not Mauer's contract that needs to be debated.

They showed the return of the Falcon, but I can't remember if it was Monday or Tuesday. I did tune out the game after about the 6th inning last night, but previous to that there was no Bruce Wayne sighting.

Well Blackie's a gutty performer, his guttiness really solidifies this teams cohesive energy. I heard Australians were immune to the Oklahoma gutiltiness that Blackie and Gardy exude to propell this team's extreme gutlitudal solidarity. Edit: It has been pointed out that guttiness is comparable in spelling to gutlessness, please do not get the two confused and start calling Oklahomans gutless.

That's all very true, but WAR takes into account defense for postion players so a strong defensive catcher, like Ausmus, Pudge or Johnny Bench, will get a large boost in that department. The problem with comparing catchers to other postion players with WAR, is that the stat is weighted to even out positional value. Firstbase is a relatively easy position, it is weighted negatively at -12.5 runs per 162 games played. Catcher is a tough postion and gets weighted +12.5 runs. I don't believe a pitcher's defense is even a factor in WAR. Even with the defensive adjustment, Bench, the catcher with the greatest WAR for a non-pitcher is 53rd on the career WAR list at 71.3. Aaron, Mays, Cobb, Bonds and Ruth more than doubled that number while 25 pitchers have a higher WAR than Bench. The Twins likely won't be getting a HOF player with the #2 pick, but if we are going to gamble, it might as well be on the highest ceiling and I don't believe a catcher, particularly a strikeout prone catcher provides that.

They are booing Mauer, but I'm not sure it's really deserved this year. He hasn't been very clutch, but no one has been lately. He's playing everyday and has a .400 OBP.

This Maloney balony is done after tonight I hope. Liriano takes his place in the pen. ?Diamond? gets a rotation spot? What does it matter really, just start throwing guys out there and see if someone sticks.

Yes that is what I'm saying. Any team would love to have Posey, but he will never have the impact of Albert Pujols, Matt Kemp or Justin Verlander. Like I said in the previous post, the gap between Buster Posey and Brad Ausmus is much less than the gap between Justin Verlander and Jason Marquis. I'm certainly not making the comparison myself, but funny enough, here is an article that actually makes a Zunino/Ausmus comparison. http://houston.sbnation.com/houston-astros/2012/3/28/2909156/mlb-draft-2012-mike-zunino-is-top-college-catcher Besides, his higher strikeout rate indicates to me he could easily turn into a John Buck. Regardless, the Twins need Jared Weaver much more than they need Buster Posey. Anyone following the draft who claims there are no aces coming out this year might as well tell the rest of us with, 100% certainty, who the 100 best players will be ten years from now. If people knew who was going to be an ace and who wasn't, Roy Halladay wouldn't have gone 14th overall. The velocity of the top pitchers in the draft this year and last is so impressive compared to previous years that we aren't going to know how it is going to translate until they get with professionals who know how to develop secondary pitches and improve location.

Buxton is far from a sure thing. He's no less a risk than the top pitchers. He hasn't gotten the hype of Justin Upton, Alex Rodriguez or Ken Griffey Jr for good reason, we have no idea how he would fair against better pitching. I'm less of a fan of Zunino. Rarely is a catcher a year-in and year-out impact bat. Even if he is a Matt Wieters, a .775 OPS guy really shouldn't be a middle of the order bat and I don't know how anyone could argue that we can expect higher production from a college catcher. Besides, even in a best case scenario a replacement value catcher is less different offensively than any other position, it's the nature of playing less than 150 games but doing so in a strenuous postion. The gap between Josh Thole and Brian McCann is much less than the gap between Jason Marquis and Justin Verlander or between Trevor Plouffe and Matt Kemp. Zunino is probably a safe bet to be a very good player, but his ceiling has to be very low compared to Buxton and the pitchers. If I have a pick this high, I want a chance at getting the most productive offensive player or best pitcher in the league six years down the road. A catcher is very rarely the best offesive weapon in baseball. Mauer's 2009 season may have been the only time. Other catchers have won MVP awards because the voters include the defensive ability and the demand of the position in their decisions. I don't want safe and Buster Posey, I would rather take a chance on getting someone who could be considered the best player in the league for half a decade.

I'd like to think so, but they certainly haven't acted appropriatly to satisfy the need. Only Perkins and Burton have K/9 rate over 7 as a reliever, a rate which is not all that impressive to begin with. I don't know why any GM would want more than 1 or 2 BP arms who don't at least have a reasonable chance of getting a strikeout seeing as they are dealing with runners on base and in scoring position regularly. Even at Capps' best, he still was only a 7.6k/9 kind of guy, and in the AL it obviously isn't translating. I don't think he ever was really closer material. Hopefully the Twins are finally seeing the reality, that strikeouts are essential to prohibiting runs, and that is why they took chances on high draft picks Madison Boer and Hudson Boyd in last years draft. I was excited they invited Jason Bulger to camp but his control killed him. The same thing seems to be happening to Lester Oliveros, while Jim Hoey already got tossed aside. I'm afraid that they are not able to identify quality power arms who have control issues that are reasonable enough to live with.

He can't strike anyone out because he has no movement on his fastball, and this is something everyone was well aware of when they traded for him. Unfortunately the Twins don't feel strikeouts are essential for their pitchers, which is counter-intuitive seeing as how much they detest strikeouts from their offensive players. It makes little sense that they preach to the pitchers that it's ok to let opponents put the ball in play, but when the offense is up, they also teach defensive swinging to just make contact to put the ball in play. Why are positive results expected for the Twins offense by making contact, when negative results are expected when the opponents do the same?

I think he needs to go to the pen, but only be used to start an inning. Both this year and last, he has faired best in the first inning which may indicate he can give 1 full inning before he falls apart. It's not an altogether different situation than what we saw with Glen Perkins. He too was a head case who didn't trust his stuff.

Morales was picked in the 3rd round of the 2007 draft, and while he has not advanced too far up the organizational ladder, it should be pointed out that aside from Ben Revere, no player drafted by the Twins in 2007 or any year after, have made it to the major leagues. Morales is a 22-year old right-handed outfielder athletic enough to play either of the three positions. In the past, his power and speed combination invoked compliments a la Alfonso Soriano. Unfortunately he also carries with him the same high strikeout rate, and in this organization, strikeouts have killed the hopes of better prospects than Morales. To date, his peak is still his 2008 Rookie League year at E-ton. His .301/.413/.623 line gave hopes for a high ceiling. As expected, he took a step back in his move to Beloit in 2009. His power remained viable but his OBP dropped 250 points to .784. Still his numbers would continue to rival fellow outfielder and top prospect Aaron Hicks who he would be outfield partners with for most of the next four seasons. His numbers continued to underwhelm through 2011 when he suffered an elbow injury that kept him out sporadically, managing to appear in only 37 games at Ft. Myers. He has since been seperated from Hicks, and while it has been a small sample size, both have been producing in this early season. While Morles' strikeout rate is still around 1 per game, his .861 OBP is his highest since his 2008 E'ton season. Look for Morales to fight it out with Oswaldo Arcia to see who is first promoted to New Britain if Mark Dolenc and Darin Matroianni continue to struggle at the AA level.

I thought people were just trying to avoid a .185 AVG at Rochester and 17K's in 16 games! Joking aside I hope he turns it around quickly. If he doesn't though, Hicks is going to pass him in the OF call-up pecking order.

I'll take Angel Morales.

Casilla's trying to work his way into the doghouse.

And the club seems pretty thrilled with Carroll's glove at short. Besides if the time frame is end of May or June, an opening will surely arise in the infield due to injury. Carroll is 38 and Casilla is already playing on borrowed time.

I figured Thomas was going to be the fourth outfielder when he got claimed, but so far he's getting the heavy end of the rigth field platoon. With Doumit riding the pine 2 out of 3 days, and Mauer always catching the other, there is no need for a 3rd catcher. Gardy may want one, but Terry Ryan has clearly shown that he's in charge of this ship and he should know better. That being said, if the team is going to call up a utility player, why didn't they just keep Hughes?

Luke Hughes has 335 big league plate appearances. I think that's much too small of a sample size to determine any future MLB productivity. Same thing happened with those saying Revere is a terrible hitter. When did everyone start expecting consistant quality at-bats from rookies?

I don't think intellegence is a factor in Liriano's decline. I'm sure there have been plenty of mentally deficient pitchers who have succeeded in the league. He doesn't handle the stress of failure very well is his problem. I'm a fairly educated person, but when I'm staring at a 30 yard chip shot for a potential up and down for birdie, five times out of ten I get too anxious, forget my mechanics and come up 15 yards short. Liriano needs a sports psychologist, not continuing education classes.