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- Word spread on Tuesday that Carl Pavano had been re-diagnosed with a bruise on his humerus bone. Pavano, who had made two appearances with the Fort Myers Miracle in hopes of rehabbing what was assumed to be a strained shoulder, told reporters that he’s frustrated that it took several months to get the diagnosis correct but is happy that it does not require surgery to heal. Considering it will take rest and that September is fast approaching, the likelihood Pavano is seen again in a Twins uniform in 2012 is almost non-existent.
The
Star Tribune’s La Velle Neal
writes that the Twins medical staff should be exonerated in the case of Pavano’s missed diagnosis. The staff teamed with specialist Dr. David Altchek, who agreed with the original diagnosis of the strained shoulder capsule, conferred with the team’s doctors thorough his rehab and saw every MRI the Twins performed on Pavano.
Said Assistant GM Rob Antony:
"All along our doctors and Altchek have conferred on everything. To me, I'm not sure how many more medical opinions you can get on this guy, or more tests done or whatever, than we did."
- Speaking of injured pitchers, Pedro Henandez, one of two players acquired in the Francisco Liriano trade, left Tuesday night’s game one batter into the third inning. Through his four starts in the Twins organization, Hernandez has thrown 17.1 innings and posted an 11-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio with opponents hitting .342 off of him.
- The Twins will be summoning pitcher Liam Hendriks from Rochester for the third time this season. Hendriks’ performance between the two levels could not be any more night and day. In his 8 games with the Twins this year, he’s 0-5 with a 7.04 ERA in 38.1 innings. In Rochester, he’s made 16 starts and is 9-3 with an International League-leading 2.20 ERA in 106.1 innings pitched. So what’s the biggest difference? It’s a variety of things, Hendriks explains in his interview with MinorLeagueBall.com’s John Sickels.
One glaring statistical difference is that Hendriks has not allowed the ball to leave the park in AAA in comparison to his big league stints. While in Rochester, just 3% of fly balls have become home runs whereas 12% of flies with Minnesota have resulted in dingers.
- Twins second basemen are hitting .213/.270/.272 (542 OPS) collectively this year -- well below the baseball standard for the position of .254/.317/.380 (697 OPS) -- yet Ron Gardenhire is not willing to give Darin Mastroianni a trial at the keystone.
Gardy told the
PiPress’s John Shipley
:
“He’s an emergency second baseman. He’s not as skilled; he would have a lot to work on at second base. I take all the throws with him, so you can tell your (readers) the manager’s out there taking all the throws when he’s fielding groundballs and it’s a work in progress. He’s an emergency infielder. He was an infielder and was moved to the outfield, and that’s because a lot of the balls ended up in the outfield anyway. That’s what happens.”
- Twins reliever Alex Burnett is the only qualified reliever in baseball to have more walks (23) than strikeouts (22) yet, somehow, he manages to have a respectable stat line including a 3.11 ERA – thanks in part to a 74.5% left-on-base rate and a .249 batting average on balls in play. Interestingly, just five of Burnett’s 62 fly balls allowed have become hits (.082 batting average vs .228 AL fly ball average) helping suppress that batting average on balls in play.
- Twins PR man, Dustin Morse, tweeted out that Ben Revere is just one stolen base shy of stealing 30 bags in consecutive seasons. If-slash-when Revere nabs his 30th of the year he will join Cesar Tovar, Rod Carew and Chuck Knoblauch as the only Twins to have accomplished that feat.
- Following an 0-for-3 night at the plate – in which one plate appearance included banging into a triple play – Trevor Plouffe is now 2-for-29 (.068).
- Even though he took the loss, Cole Devries left Tuesday’s game relatively unscathed considering his 2.24 home runs per nine innings was the highest rate among those with a minimum of 60 innings pitched this year. Of course, working in the O.co Coliseum whose three-year park factor for home runs is 80 (very pitcher-friendly), it takes some hard work to give up bombs in Oakland at night.
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