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stringer bell's Blog

A blog by stringer bell in Twins Daily

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Entries in this blog

Report from the Fort

My journey to Fort Myers started with a phone call at 3 in the morning, notifying me that the shuttle would arrive at the Kwik Trip at 3:50 instead of the already too early 4:20. I arrived at "Terminal 2" at 5 AM for an 8:30 flight, but couldn't go through Security because I had arranged to help my brother when he arrived.   The flight was fine-left on time, arrived on time--but still felt a bit like a sardine in the can. We upgraded our rental to an SUV and headed to our hotel on Sanibel. There

What Spring Training Means

I will be at spring training for the fourth straight year. I have watched three straight non-contending teams gear up for a disappointing regular season. I have seen impressive individual performances that didn't stand up to regular season pressures. I have seen guys showing obvious potential take a step from prospect to established player and others not be able to establish themselves. I have seen comments that seem to espouse an open competition for almost every spot on the roster and also

Optimism/Pessimism

The current Twins Forum is filled with prognostication and speculation. There really isn't much else to talk about until the team starts Spring Training. Many comments have been written in reference to disturbing predictions from outside of Twins Territory: Being picked in the bottom five by an ESPN writer and being given an over/under of 68.5 in Las Vegas. The realists have joined the negatives in predicting a long, losing season. There is certainly a realistic basis for such predictions/p

More Power!

I have followed the Twins since they moved to Minnesota from DC. In the early days, the Twins excelled in hitting home runs. They had plenty of power at many positions led by perennial home run king Harmon Killebrew, who led the league in homers six times. However, since Mr. Nixon said "I am not a crook" (and Harmon declined), the Twins have had a severe power shortage. In the forty-plus years since 1973, the Twins have outhomered their opponents in only three seasons and by narrow margins.   Th

Intangibles

The signing of Torii Hunter has brought off-the-field issues back to the fore for the Twins. Part of the reason for signing Hunter has been for clubhouse leadership, mentoring of young players, and also bring back fans to the park. Hunter's pros and cons in these areas have been analyzed more than the break on Phil Hughes' spike curve.   I weighed in on several threads saying that it wasn't possible to measure if there would be any effect and I doubted there would be much effect anyway. This

Revised 25-man Projection

Before the Arizona Fall League began I started beating the drum for Eddie Rosario to make the Twins out of spring training in 2015. The signing of Torii Hunter as a free agent makes an already long shot into a near impossibility, barring injury. That is all right because we can project and predict all we want on Twins Daily and only highlight when we are right!   Since Hunter's acquisition has occurred, I decided I would try to project again who will come north with the 2015 Twins. Here's my

Eddie, Eddie, Eddie!

I just checked today's AFL game and Eddie Rosario got a double in his first at-bat. We Twins fans shouldn't get too worked up about minor league baseball played in Arizona in October and November. However, there isn't much else Twins related to follow, so all of a sudden it becomes important that Eddie Rosario is hitting .400 in off-season ball.   Having said that, Rosario is following the script he needs to follow to make his Twins' debut early in 2015. He is undoing the tough season he had in

Postseason Review: Bullpen

The last two years, the Twins' bullpen has been incredibly stable. They've also been regarded as quite effective, especially when compared to the starting rotation. During the last leg of the season, the bullpen wasn't effective or efficient. I'm going to discuss the players who were on the club for much or most of the season.   Six pitchers spent all season with the Twins and most of their innings in the bullpen: Swarzak, Burton, Fien, Duensing, Thielbar and Perkins. They all threw between 47 a

Postseason Review: Ricky Nolasco

Ricky Nolasco signed easily the largest free agent contract for the Twins last year. While not every Twins fan was happy, the consensus was that the Twins had opened their wallets wide to get a guy that would guarantee them innings and competitive starts. In other words, while Nolasco's ceiling wasn't thought to be that high, his floor was thought to be competence or better than that.   For one season, at least, the Twins were totally wrong. They didn't get middle-of-the-rotation production from

Postseason Review: Schafer, Parmelee, Nuñez

This will close out my postseason reviews of position players. Parmelee and Nuñez spent a majority of the season with the Twins. Absent significant injuries, they didn't start many games. Schafer was claimed from the Braves and played regularly. All three players had their moments, but most likely won't seriously compete for a starting spot in 2015. There is a significant possibility that one or more of these players will be cut loose in the offseason.   Parmelee: Chris Parmelee had chance

Postseason Review: Phil Hughes

Barring injury, Phil Hughes will be the Opening Day starting pitcher for the Twins in 2015. He was the Twins best and most reliable starting pitcher last year by far. Hughes was signed to a three-year $24M contract coming off a 4-14 season with the New York Yankees, a team that won 85 games. Hughes had allowed 24 homers in 145+ innings for the Yanks and the thought was that a new location and less pressure would allow for improvement. Hughes pitched in 2014 as a 28-year old, so he was one of

Postseason Review--Josmil Pinto

September complaints about Twins lineups centered on two players--Danny Santana and Josmil Pinto. The fans remaining at Twins Daily wanted Santana to get reps at shortstop (and opportunities for Aaron Hicks) and they wanted to see the state of Josmil Pinto's catching ability. The fans were mostly disappointed. Santana mostly stayed in center field and Pinto only started eight games at catcher and left one of them before he either hit or caught. We will wait for answers (or at least more defi

Postseason Review--Danny Santana

I saw Danny Santana play in a lot of games in Spring Training of 2014. I was impressed with his swing and his speed, but thought that he was a long way from helping the Twins in 2014. Santana showed the baseball world that he was ready when he was recalled in early May. He hit early and continued to hit throughout the season. Danny finished with a .319 batting average and an OPS of .824, both of which would have led the team easily if he had enough plate appearances. Danny made the All-Rook

Postseason Review--Aaron Hicks

"Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you". Aaron Hicks has been the starting center fielder for the Twins the last two Opening Days. He was a thorough disappointment in 2013, eventually getting demoted to AAA and not being recalled in September. With the bar set considerably lower in 2014, Hicks still fell far short of expectations and offered a lot of content for sports analysts with his supposed lack of preparation and short-lived decision to abandon switch hitting. Hicks spent

Postseason Review--Eduardo Escobar

Entering 2014, I had Eduardo Escobar pegged as a standard-order utility infielder. He was a switch-hitter with a pretty good glove, okay speed who had demonstrated the ability to capably fill in at short, third and second. There was some chatter that EE shouldn't make the Twins coming out of spring training, but most viewed him as a good fit for the utility infielder role. Some wanted to see "Eddie 400" in 2014--that is at least 400 at-bats to see what the still-young Venezuelan could do with mo

Postseason Summary--Joe Mauer

Joe Mauer is a former MVP and a three-time batting champion. As a catcher, he has won five Silver Sluggers and three Gold Gloves. These are Hall of Fame credentials for a 31-year-old. Last year, Mauer was shut down after suffering a concussion. The symptoms were present until well into the offseason. Mauer and his advisors decided it was time to give up catching. With the exit of Justin Morneau, a move to first base was an easy call.   I was among those that thought that Mauer would be ab

Postseason Review--Brian Dozier

In my book, Brian Dozier was the Twins best position player in 2013. He had a better year in 2014 and again I think he was the best everyday player on the team. Dozier is a study in contrasts--he isn't a big guy, but has led the team in home runs the last two years. He is a converted shortstop who has become totally comfortable as a second baseman. Most guys his size are told to "use the whole field", but he is perhaps the most pronounced pull hitter on the team, certainly among the right ha

2014 Post-mortem--Kyle Gibson

Kyle Gibson started the 2014 season in the Twins rotation and stayed in the rotation the entire season. He won 13 games, the most by a homegrown pitcher for the Twins since Kevin Slowey won 13 in 2010. Gibson had 10 starts in 2013 and was pretty much ineffective. He had a strong spring training and his competitors for the fifth spot did not. Gibson started 31 games, missing one turn for back spasms.   Gibson's performance was wildly uneven. At midseason, he had racked up several outstandin

2014 Post-mortem--Oswaldo Arcia

Oswaldo Arcia finished 2014 playing in 103 games, mostly due to a wrist injury suffered early in the season. His statistics are similar to his rookie season in 2013. Arcia pounded 20 homers, but struck out 127 times in just 410 plate appearances. Arcia also hit .231 with a .300 OBP. The power is undeniable, but the combination of the large number of no-chance at-bats and below average defense has made Arcia less than a productive player.   Arcia has been in the Twins' system for seven years. In

2014 Post-mortem--Trevor Plouffe

The Twins 2014 season is over. It is hot stove league time, at least as far as my favorite team is concerned. Much virtual ink has been spilled discussing perhaps as many as a dozen key players. I thought I would blog about some of these guys and perhaps start a conversation. I will start with 2014 3rd Baseman Trevor Plouffe.   Plouffe went into 2014 considered the "luckiest man alive" because top prospect and Plouffe's eventual successor Miguel Sano got injured early in Spring Training and was

Injuries and Effectiveness

Ricky Nolasco, Mike Pelfrey, and Tommy Milone have all had disappointing seasons for the Twins. Glen Perkins is having a rough finish to his season. The four pitchers named have all had injuries disclosed after they struggled. The cynics among us would all be of the opinion that perhaps the pitchers were using injury as an excuse for poor performance.   Pelfrey started the season in the Twins rotation. He had a couple outings where he looked sharp, but would lose it and not be able to battle

5 Keys for Improvement in 2015

The death march to 90 losses continues today with another doubleheader, this time against the South Side Sox. Sixteen games remain in this frustrating season which produced one, maybe two, rotation pieces and some optimism that the Twins can score enough runs to be competitive. For the record, the Twins need to win 11 of 16 games to avoid 90 losses. Actually, if they did that it would be a bit more than cosmetic, since they are playing playoff contenders in ten of the last 16 games.   My tho

Embarrassing

The Twins have just been swept by the Angels. They were competitive for three games, but got beat up on Sunday. The fact is that, despite a fairly good offense in the five games, the Twins had no chance because the Angels are superior in all facets of the game. At least some of the young guys are playing and a few are thriving. Kennys Vargas is hitting and slugging and Danny Santana is established as a good hitter who has played center field more than his natural position of shortstop.   In

Position Players for 2015--Get used to what you're seeing

The Twins will probably lose 90 games this year. That doesn't mean that they will be making wholesale changes of their roster, at least not from the position player standpoint. After watching half of the Angel series, I'm convinced that all of the 13 position players that will head north out of Fort Myers are playing for the Twins right now. Most of the players are givens. A couple of guys will have competition and two of the jewels of the system will probably get their chance sometime in 2015,

Plouffe: 3B or Utility Player

Trevor Plouffe has been the Twins third baseman since the middle of 2012. He is the Twins' longest-serving starter at his current position on the team. That is a bit hard to believe, but every position has turned over since the Twins handed Plouffe third base out of desperation. Plouffe responded to his assignment by having a once-in-a-lifetime power surge. Most other parts of his game as a third baseman were substandard.   Now, late in the 2014 season, we see a different player. Plouffe h

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