Minnesota Twins Talk

Red Sox Lineup Shane Victorino, RF Ryan Sweeney, LF Will Middlebrooks, 3B Lyle Overbay, 1B Juan Carlos Linares, DH Mitch Maier, CF Daniel Butler, C Jose Iglesias, SS Jonathan Diaz, 2B RHP Clay Buchholz SP Twins Lineup Joe Benson, CF Jamey Carroll, 2B Joe Mauer, C Josh Willingham, LF Justin Morneau, 1B Ryan Doumit, DH Chris Parmelee, RF Eduardo Escobar, 3B Pedro Florimon, SS RHP Kyle Gibson SP (Other ptchers: Glen Perkins, Brian Duensing, P.J. Walters, Esmerling Vasquez, Andrew Albers, Deolis Guerra, Anthony Slama, Caleb Thielbar)

Who would you rather see open the 2013 season at 2-bag, Brian Dozier or Ed Rosario? Obviously, it would be a lot more fun to see Eddie. But, we won't. Rosario is now 5-8 with a homer in a few games off the bench this spring.

La Velle says the Twins talked Thome about a month ago but have not spoken since. Something may still happen as Gardenhire has been requesting a stronger bat for the bench. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/193085161.html Sign him up and put him at short.

Mauer was impressed by him today and Ron Gardenhire said he had fun watching Gibson on the mound. Then he had a little fun himself.... It will be interesting, with a 130ish inning limit, if the Twins will feel comfortable putting him in the rotation when they break camp. http://www.foxsportsnorth.com/02/24/13/Mauer-has-high-praise-for-Gibson-in-Twin/landing_twins.html

Any idea when (or if) we will get to see these two pitch for the Twins? Are they still rehabbing their respective injuries? Or have they just been pitching in the B games?

Tyler Mason interviews Twins President Dave St. Peter, mostly about off-the-field stuff, but ends with some talk about this year's team. Good news Dave....you can still jump on that 64.5 over/under in Vegas. http://www.foxsportsnorth.com/02/23/13/St-Peter-I-fully-expect-us-to-be-competi/landing_twins.html?blockID=868973&feedID=3546

Today from Buster Olney "The agent for Kyle Lohse called the Yankees this week to ask if they'd have interest in the pitcher. They don't." Can you envision any senario in which Lohse would end up with the Twins in 2013? I know the issues with how badly this relationship ended last time he was in Minnesota, but apparently we had trouble handing money over to starting pitchers. He is obviously not getting the dollars or the teams that are top on his list. He isn't going to sit out the season. 1% chance we land him? less than that?

Zack Greinke: ?I could play for the worst team if they paid the most? | Big League Stew - Yahoo! Sports Obviously not everyone is like Greinke, but if there's one there's more than one that won't admit it.

MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger has a gracious profile of Chris Colabello, the 29-year-old first baseman who toiled for six years in an independent league but has an outside shot as a bench bat with the Twins sometime this year. There are plenty of good quotes I could pull, but let's go with this one from a different writer.... Incidentally, Robert Frost played some baseball, at least casually. There are pictures and everything. Chris Colabello is trying to go from the independent leagues to the Twins | twinsbaseball.com: News

Check out my post from earlier where I look into an interesting topic. If you were a GM and had to pick one player from anywhere in the Twins system to start a franchise, who would it be? Don't forget to vote in the poll too...

Mike Berardino notes that Chris Parmelee has a poor and a good throw in today's game. And it was discussed by Gardenhire: I think he's safe in right field, regardless, but I hate hearing stuff like that. Minnesota Twins: Chris Parmelee plays good throw, bad throw in field - TwinCities.com

Phil Mackey tells us that folks seem very impressed with Trevor May, the starting pitching prospect the Twins received in a trade for Ben Revere this offseason. Last year in AA, he was pretty wild, but the Twins hope they can change that: If I remember right, May's second half of the year at AA was quite a step up from his first half. Spring training observations are nice, but I'm most encouraged by that. Spring Observations: Trevor May is good representation of new approach - Minnesota Twins news | 1500 ESPN Twin Cities ? Minnesota Sports News & Opinion (Twins, Vikings, Wolves, Wild, Gophers) | Sportswire: Minnesota Twins

Ron Gardenhire started all three center field candidates in the outfield yesterday (and encouraged La Velle E Neal to take the three-hour road trip to Dunedin to see them.) Mike Berardino wants a nickname for them, and Joe Benson hasn't been able to help him.... Are we that creative? Well, are we? Minnesota Twins' speedy outfield needs a name - TwinCities.com

Ben Revere made some remarks to 1500 ESPN's Phil Mackey (among others) today and had nothing but praise for the Twins.... ....and especially for Terry Ryan.... 1) I'm going to miss Ben Revere 2) I think it's pretty clear that the overwhelming criticism the Twins received for drafting Ben Revere has been proven wrong. Not only did he make it to the majors, not only was he productive (especially when you include his defense), but because he skill set is rare, the Twins flipped him for two players that might be his equal. The Ben Revere era was very good for the Twins. http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Ben_Revere_speaks_highly_of_GM_Terry_Ryan_in_return_to_Fort_…

I wonder how this story is going to go over.... Phil Miller watched Mauer and Bruno go out for some extra swing practice on Wednesday. Afterwards, Bruno talked a little bit about why... The assumption among Mauer-haters is that he's uncoachable, or even unapproachable. So I'm sure some will view this as a member of the coaching staff grabbing some reins. When, in fact, it might be that Mauer worked with Vavra much the same way, and we just didn't have Miller there to report it, or Vavra didn't talk afterwards about it. It's interesting to me that this is going to be such a great blank canvas for people to project thier paradigm upon. It'll be fascinated to see r…

mlbtraderumors.com has a line on him. He will be 26 in June, is out of options, has just less than a year's service time, and looks to be squeezed out of the Tribe's Opening Day roster. Carrera is a speedy LH hitter, who has played all three OF positions. In 384 MLB PAs, he has OPSed .653 with 18 stolen bases. To me, he would be an ideal 4th OF, particularly since all three of the CF candidates look like they'll hit lefties better than righthanders. He could start some games in center, pinch-run and could also be a defensive replacement for Parmelee or Willingham. Two questions though: 1) Would Cleveland trade him to a division rival? 2) What would it cost to ac…

Phil Miller gives some notes from today's 8-5 win. Pitcher Mike Pelfrey was chased before his two innings were complete, but felt good about most of the outing. He's been the "feel good" story of camp so far. I'll feel good when his velocity picks up quite a bit... Pelfrey gets much of it right | StarTribune.com

Sigh. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130218&content_id=41757168&notebook_id=41757204&vkey=notebook_min&c_id=min

Per Rhett Bollinger, Anthony Swarzak will begin throwing by the middle of this week and feels good about his chances of recovering from this ridiculous injury: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130224&content_id=41942142&notebook_id=41949078

Mike Berandino reveals that Anthony Swarzak, Trevor Plouffe, Tim Wood and Josh Roenicke are out of options. I think we knew that. But I do wonder if that makes it any more likely that one of those relievers is kept and Alex Burnett is sent down.

Jon Paul Morosi wrote a story this week about Justin Morneau's status with the Twins. First, it noted that Morneau is open to a contract discussion during the season, which I thought was a reversal of what he said this week. But then there was also a lot of talk about the Blue Jays: The Blue Jays have Adam Lind playing either first base or DH regularly, and he's fallen quite a bit since his breakout season. FWIW, Morneau asked that Twins fans don't read too much into that comment, per Phil Miller. Don't worry, I'm not. At this point, I think both sides need to have their options open and see what happens. I think we'll all understand either way. I've said it bef…

Joe Benson regains the pep in his step in Twins outfield | StarTribune.com I continue to think that Joe Benson has been the forgotten man in this centerfield "battle." Aaron Hicks is the up-and-coming CF for the future. Darin Mastroianni seems to be the slight favorite to win the job to start the season. But one year ago today, Joe Benson was considered as big of a prospect as Hicks is now. He overcame two surgeries and some awful stats in 2012. His wrist hurt all April and in early May, his hamate bone finally "snapped." When he came back, it wasn't long before his knee went out, and instead of a 4-week rehab and some time in the AFL, he had microfracture surgery and h…

I did some digging, and discovered some interesting stuff about the history of the Twins drafting shortstops. Here's a list of ALL the shortstops that the Twins have drafted in the first three rounds that actually played in the big leagues: 1st Round: 1965 - Eddie Leon, came up with Cleveland, played 601 games over 8 years with the Indians, White Sox, and 1 game with the Yankees 1970 - Bob Gorinski, played in 54 games with the Twins at DH and OF 1975 Rick Sofield, played in 207 with the Twins in OF 1978 - Lenny Faedo, played 174 games over 5 years with the Twins 1984 - Jay Bell, spent 18 years in the bigs, mostly in the National League, never in a Twins uniform 1989 - …

http://msn.foxsports.com/video/MLB?vid=1c45f667-7d84-434c-a648-d65251027ad6&from=foxsports/mlb/home_gallery Fox Sports' Jon Paul Morosi talks about the Twins.

According to a Phil Miller tweet, tomorrow's lineup should have Mastroianni, Hicks, and Benson all starting in the outfield. Also the return of Plouffe. Pelfrey is the lucky starting pitcher. Should be a good listen.

...and isn't necessarily committing to a 3rd catcher. First, I'll believe it when I see it. But it will be interesting to see of Ryan would consider signing a bench bat if Gardy has the guts to leave Butera waiting in Rochester. I don't know if any of these guys look especially productive, but Carlos Lee, Derrek Lee and.....Jim Thome are all still unsigned. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/192323891.html

Bollinger gives us an update on Anthony Slama's state of mind..... ....and his unfortunate status: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130222&content_id=41882724&notebook_id=41883216

Mike Berardino wrote up a story about Jamey Carroll's unlikely tenure in the major leagues today. It included some thoughts by Gardy that mimic mine.... The ironic think about Carroll being a "utility guy" is that he's certainly the best of the four candidates for the middle infield spots. I'd like to be critical of Gardy apparently leaning towards the other three, but the truth is there isn't a great (or good, or even tenable) solution here. My top priority is probably giving Brian Dozier more time at AAA, so almost by definition, that means Pedro Florimon starts at SS (cringe), Jamey Carroll is at second base and Escobar is my bench utility guy. I guess tabbing …

If you have a Netflix account, you can now watch Pelotero, the movie about MLB signing Dominican prospects that focused on the signing of Miguel Sano, for free. I did so yesterday afternoon. We had a thread on Twins Daily about the movie a few months ago, if you want to reference it. It included questions asked to the director of the filem. After watching it yesterday, I was puzzled by the clear implication that the Pirates scout Rene Gayo somehow manipulated MLB baseball to force Sano to sign with Pittsburgh. I can't figure out how he got that leverage. It is as if someone in MLB owed him a major favor, or MLB wanted Sano to sign with a small market team. I can't fi…

Looks like the new version of MLB At Bat for iphone, ipad, android, etc. was released today. (Although it looks like there is another update coming by Opening Day). http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130220&content_id=41838748 If you aren't living in Twins Territory and have an iPhone or iPad, I would HIGHLY recommend exploring MLB.TV which includes a download of this app for free. It allows you to watch games on your iPhone. I know I'm old, but I still can't believe how easy and what high quality this is. It also looks like I can be notified now when the "condensed" version of a game has been uploaded so I can watch the games that I miss.