Originally posted at k-bro's baseball blog

A bunch of random thoughts that individually aren't enough for a blog post, but collectively are, well, something. Or not.

Buh-bye Danny

In a sudden, but not necessarily surprising move, the Twins traded Danny Valencia to the Red Sox for rookie-ball outfielder Jeremias Pineda.

Danny seemed to be pretty popular with his teammates, but his relationship between with the organization was becoming strained. Obviously, we can't know for sure what really happened, but I'm guessing that Danny's reputation for allowing his ego to be in charge (I picture him like that Cars.com commercial where the shopper's confidence comes out of him, but instead of singing about a great value of a car, Danny's confidence just spits swagger) helped to make the decision. I'm also guessing that Gardy's tendency to get fed up with such things also contributed. It probably was one of those "it's not you, it's...wait, yeah, it's you" moments.

To illustrate how badly the Twins wanted to be rid of him, just take a look at the return on investment. Pineda is 21 years old and in only his second year of rookie ball, which makes him kind of old for the level. He is having a good year, so maybe he'll progress quickly, but I believe he'll be just an organizational guy.

Look Who's Coming -- Quickly

We're all very used to ooohing and aaahing over Ben Revere's defense and speed. With amazing catches and blazing baserunning, he's faster than a speeding baseball. But, have you noticed what he's been doing with his bat lately.

He's collected a nice little 20-game hitting streak. Additionally, he just needs a few more plate appearances to qualify to be in the batting race. Yeah, the batting race.

He's currently hitting .345; if he keeps it up, he'll surpass Joe Mauer as the team leader, and he'll be a very close second in the league behind Mike Trout of the Angels.

Go Benny. And, yes, I write this at the risk of totally jinxing him and ruining everyone's fun. So I'm crossing my fingers as I type. Or something.

A Second Chance at a First Impression

To replace Danny Valencia, the Twins recalled Tsuyoshi Nishioka. And on his first game back, he looked as if he had picked up right where he left off.

*Sigh*

Hopefully, he just had a case of the butterflies on Monday, and he'll straighten things out soon. Also, maybe I'll stop being delusional.

Deckstravaganza!

I've been invited to participate in the Twins Deckstravaganza social media event on Saturday. And, because it's a social media event, I'll probably be live-tweeting the game. Follow along at twitter.com/kbrobaseball.

Nice blog, Kirsten.

I believe that you knock on wood to get jixes to go away