Other Baseball

MLB Trade Rumors is saying that that the Dodgers have signed St. Paul Saint Wes Roemer to a minor league deal. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/06/minor-moves-roemer-kopp.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MlbTradeRumors+%28MLB+Trade+Rumors%29 It seems like the Saints must have been full of talent or something. I swear I've seen a lot of posts about members getting minor league contracts.

I would hate to see him go #6 overall and see if the Cubs could see if they could destroy a 3rd power pitcher like they did with Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.

I only got to see the ninth, and I had forgotten how filthy his change-up was. Congrats, Johan!!

I was wondering if anyone had subscriptions to any of the following: Baseball ProspectusBaseball AmericaESPN InsiderLooking for the benefits of having subscriptions to these sites or other sites that might be good investments.

There's got to be something you would change in the rules of baseball so let's list them. I'll start. I'd like to see a limit on the number of times a pitcher can throw over to first base to hold a baserunner from stealing. I was at a Twins game last month and the pitcher threw over to first base 9 times during one guy's at-bat. If a pitcher throws over to first base more than five times during the same at-bat he can no longer throw over there again or else the baserunner is automatically awarded 2nd base. Let's say the pitcher has thrown over there 4 times. If he throws over there the 5th time and the runner returns to 1st base safely, the umpire calls time and…

I thought this would be a fun debate topic since the Twins aren't giving us much to cheer about. I welcome your choices as well and feel free to tell me I don't know what I am talking about as it is all in pure fun. This is a subjective topic so it doesn't have to be the guys having the best years this year, but who you think is the best hitters in the game. 1. Miguel Cabrera 2. Albert Pujols 3. Matt Kemp 4. Josh Hamilton 5. Jose Bautista 6. Joe Mauer 7. Joey Votto 8. Robinson Cano 9. Ryan Braun 10. Troy Tulowitzki

A few days old. Rymes gets HBP in the arm and passes out from the pain. But he doesn't rub it. http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21495185

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120515&content_id=31385244&vkey=news_tor&c_id=tor Brett Lawrie got tossed last night for arguing balls and strikes (actually arguing balls that were called strikes). Instead of just arguing professionally, Lawrie decided to take his helmet off and throw it to the ground in the general vicinity of the umpire. The helmet bounced up and hit the umpire... If you haven't seen the video, be sure to check it out (I'm trying to link it here). What do you think? How long should the suspension be?

2010 Twins second baseman Orlando Hudson was released by the Padres, and I love this excerpt from RotoWorld: Padres released 2B Orlando Hudson. ESPN's Keith Law first reported that Hudson was designated for assignment, but the Padres have actually requested release waivers, which is a mere formality before he can sign with any team. The 34-year-old was a massive disappointment during his time in San Diego, batting just .238/.313/.344 with a .657 OPS over 585 plate appearances. However, we're sure somebody will take a chance on him at the major league minimum. Alexi Amarista has been called up from Triple-A and should get most of the playing time at second base moving f…

Unfortunate news out of the nation's capitol: Wilson Ramos tore his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. As if this guy hasn't gone through enough over the last year. Rooting for a quick recovery.

Was up in Winnipeg this week and caught a couple of pre-season Goldeyes games against the Saints, pretty entertaining (although that perception may have been aided by the many samples of Fort Garry Breweries new Angry Fish Pilsner, introduced at the park this year). Nonetheless I was impressed with more than a few players, got a charge out of seeing Nick Carr throw the crap out of the ball for an inning, got between 95-98 on the gun a half dozen times, all for strikes. If anybody is ever in town for any reason it is more than worth your while to catch a game at Shaw Park, the best little independent park in baseball, always loads of fun and easy on the wallet.

It turns out that Joe Mauer isn't doing too poorly in WPA compared to the other #3 hitters in the AL. There are a lot of guys struggling a lot worse. Here each team, who has batter #3 for them the most, and their WPA through 4/27: TBR - Longoria 1.01 TEX - Hamilton 1.01 DET - Cabrera 0.86 CHW - Dunn 0.42 BAL - Markakis 0.41 MIN - Mauer 0.28 CLE - Choo 0.03 BOS - Gonzalez -0.01 OAK - Reddick -0.16 TOR - Bautista -0.18 KCR - Hosmer -0.29 LAA - Pujols -0.3 SEA - Ichiro -0.52 NYY - Cano -0.53

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/phillies-cole-hamels-hits-nationals-bryce-harper-admits-aiming-for-him-050612?ocid=vt_fbmsn Harper came up with two outs in the first inning and Hamels promptly drilled the 19-year-old. Why, exactly? ''That's something I grew up watching, that's kind of what happened. So I'm just trying to continue the old baseball because I think some people are kind of getting away from it. I remember when I was a rookie the strike zone was really, really small and you didn't say anything because that's the way baseball is,'' Hamels said. ----- Curious as to how others feel about this. I would suspend him for 10 games. There is no excuse for reck…

Here's the link: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7902044/guillermo-mota-san-francisco-giants-gets-100-game-drug-suspension Not a lot of news for the Twins but the Giants could use a CF and now maybe a RP. We've traded with the Giants before so maybe that becomes more likely.

Interesting article on SI: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/albert_chen/05/07/dylan.bundy.trevor.bauer.long.toss/index.html?sct=mlb_t11_a0 Anyone know how the Twins view long tossing?

Cuddyer up. Bases loaded. 2 outs. I was waiting for the weak grounder to 2nd. But BOOM - a grand slam to center. Congrats, Cuddy!

There are so many great stadiums across baseball so I was wondering what is your favorite stadium that you have visited besides Target Field? The Twins tend to get some good support on some of their road trips and I am sure a few fans have been to some nicer stadiums than I have visited. I'm interested to hear where people have been and what they liked about the experience.

Just a question for the folks in the Cities who are following the Gophers. It seems that the Twins usually draft a few Gophers. Derek McCallum was a disaster as a high round draft pick. I heard a lot of good things about Oakes. The Twins drafted him in the 41st round last season but did not sign. He will definitely go higher this season; is he worth the pick you think in the 3-5 rounds?

Swept the Skunkbears this weekend to open up conference play 3-0. I haven't been able to get to any games this year, and we didn't renew our dugout club membership this year because the kids are playing to many sports. Does anyone else on the board follow the team?

Slowey, now pitching for Cleveland's AAA club after failing to make Cleveland's opening day roster, hasn't looked so good. In four starts he's 1-2, 4.85 ERA. In 26ip, he's struck out 18 while walking 7. He's also given up 29 hits already. And he's last two starts have been his worst. On the plus side, for him, he's making 2.75million.

There's a story on ESPN's Page 2 site here if you want to read about it and you can order them here for $225! They look pretty cool! I really like what McFarlane and Todd McFarlane does with his sports line of action figures and collectibles. I have a few of them and they look great. They are usually 6" versions and sometimes they make 3" versions. Obviously what he's doing with these new resin statues is a whole different level of collecting but if you're that big of a fan of a player or know somebody who is, it would be a great purchase. They have 2 Joe Mauer figures, one with him catching and one in his batting stance. The only other Twins figures are Torii Hunt…

http://www.freep.com/article/20120427/SPORTS02/120427015/Delmon-Young-Detroit-Tigers-arrest?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CSports

The Fort Myers Miracle recently had a promotion where they offered free tickets to any fan who could surpass the speed of a Jamie Moyer fastball at the team's fast pitch booth. (78 mph) Given the Twins rough start to the season they could probably generate additional interest from a similarly themed fan challenge. Please share your best suggestions.

Indians closer Chris Perez has been fined $750 by Major League Baseball for a "reckless" message on his Twitter account after a benches-clearing incident in Kansas City. Well, there goes a day at the arcade.

Minka Kelly vacations with Wilmer Valderrama in Australia. Jeter writes about it in his diary. (Also his thoughts on Carl Pavano.)

Sports Illustrated's Tom Veriducci has a terrific piece asking whether the usage of the modern closer has led to more injuries: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/tom_verducci/04/17/closers/index.html

Just lost the ball in LF for the Tigers. As bad as he has ever looked in the field. Other Tiger notes, Octavio Dotel dominant in relief against the Sox.

Still waiting to get into the HOF but at least he's in the Supreme Court http://www.murraychass.com/?p=4579

In my post that I wrote earlier today, I asked a simple question. Are we living in the "Golden Age" of catchers? There have been some great eras for catchers in the past but this season could turn out to be one of the best seasons ever for players behind the plate. Do you think we are in the midst of the "Golden Age" of catchers? If you had to pick one catcher to build a team around, who would it be? Why? Here are some of the players to pick from or feel free to select someone not on this list. AL Catchers: Mike Napoli, Alex Avila, Matt Wieters, Carlos Santana, Joe Mauer, Salvador Perez, Jesus Montero, Travis d'Arnaud NL Catchers: Miguel Montero, Yadier Molina, …

Watching the condensed game on MLBtv and I noticed that some of the Rangers hitters were folding their hands after hits, what is going on here? Mystery!