Minnesota Twins Talk

Listening to Dick and Bert while watching the Brew Crew lose, I thought Bert mentioned Zach Greinke is a free agent after this year. With it probably being Capps and Pavano's last year, would this free up enough money for the Twins to go after Mr. Greinke? (If Bert was correct) Thoughts, feedback and general pointing and laughing are all appreciated.

So now that the Milwaukee series is winding down and the Twins to back to AL foes for the next 2+ weeks, do the Twins stay with 12 pitchers or do they go back to 13? The starting pitching has improved somewhat of late, with Pavano getting healthier, Diamond being a pleasant surprise (so far), and Walters holding his own. There are still big question marks going forward, however, with Marquis, Blackburn & Liriano all struggling. So what happens next? Do you hope the string of decent starts continues or do you plan for the worst and beef up the bullpen with an extra person?

Gardy hit the jackpot with the double switch in the bottom of the tenth inning. Plouffe got to swing in the eleventh and hit the game-winning homer. Earlier in the game, I thought Gardenhire made two questionable decisions. Neither cost any runs that I am aware of, but I think players were wasted when there was no need to waste them. Komatsu was used as a pinch-runner in relief of Doumit, and he was one base behind Butera. I thought Gardy should have used a pitcher (Walters maybe) and saved a position player. Secondly, Gardenhire used his last catcher (Mauer) in the top of the eighth. I thought that was an unnecessary risk, especially with the team already up t…

Let's say the Twins get to the point over the next few weeks that an inevitable shake-up needs to occur. Similar to what the Angels just did with the firing of hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, let's say the Twins front office decide to send a message to the clubhouse by axing either hitting coach Joe Vavra or pitching coach Rick Anderson. Which of the two would you fire and why? Note: One or the other and not both. No cheating by saying Ron Gardenhire or Terry Ryan.

Who will be the player named to the All Star game this year? I am drawing a blank on who actually deserves to be an All Star. Ryan Doumit has been playing pretty good lately but he is not worthy of the honor.

Last season and this season I have consoled myself during losing games with the prospect of good draft picks. And when the Twins win, I feel a pang of concern that they might "blow" getting the #1 pick next year. All of the recent losing has changed the way that I feel about wins and losses. Am I alone on this, or are others experiencing similar feelings?

OK so the Twins head to Milwaukee for a weekend series against their border war foes in the Brewers. They face the Brewers 2 aces in Gallardo and Greinke on Saturday and Sunday so it should be a fun series as Miller Park should be packed of Twins fans making the drive down. So here is my question, with the games in a National League park there is no DH, therefore do you have Mauer and Morneau play all three days in the field or do one or the other get a day off in the series being that they also have Monday off. Another aspect to keep in mind is Drew Butera is coming off a 3 hit game yesterday and Scott Diamond is pitching tonight and Butera has caught Diamond in his 2…

I find the resemblence in profile a little disturbing.

How is the franchise going to do tonight!?!?! Is he rested and refreshed? Or will he maintain his ERA of 11, and be heading down to AAA next week?

Ryan Doumit has been placed on the 15-day Disabled List with a calf injury. Ben Revere was promoted and is expected to be in Detroit on Thursday.

So far, the Twins are 3-1 when he's catching. Since he joined the team, they are 1-7 when he's on the bench. He hasn't really hit any worse than we expected, and isn't really hitting any worse than expected. He's got 3 hits and one run over 12 ABs, compared to Plouffe's 4 hits and two runs in 31 AB over his last ten games. When Mourneau comes back, I really think Butera's worth keeping around. It's going to be a bit of a juggle to get Doumit and Mourneau AB's, but honestly I'd much rather have Butera starting and Doumit as a PH option than the other way around. Thoughts?

Of pitchers in MLB who have made at least 6 starts, the Twins have 3 (Liriano 1, Blackburn 2, Marquis 8) of the bottom 8 in ERA. Hendriks started 4 games and has a worse ERA (9.00) than any of them. Pavano is far and away the best with a 5.14 ERA. A lot of the focus has been on the offense recently, but what the hell is the plan with the rotation for the remainder of 2012 and for 2013? I think they will end up trading Pavano for whatever they can get in July. Hendriks will be back at some point, maybe Swarzak, Duensing, Devries get starts at some point. The only thing keeping Marquis here right now is the $3 million, but I'm guessing that will get written off as…

Doumit had a calf cramp tonight. Capps sore arm and was not going to pitch tonight, according to Gardenhire. Blackburn's thigh is hurting and sounds like he might end up on the DL. Gardy mentioned an MRI for someone but I missed who it was. Anyone else catch it?

Following the game, Manager Ron Gardenhire mentioned that RHP Nick Blackburn had an injury in his thigh? I translate that to meaning... we need an excuse to get him out of this rotation because he is really bad. Need an injury to get him to the DL. But, if Blackburn would go on the DL, who would start? My assumption: Anthony Swarzak would move to rotation with Jeff Manship taking Swarzak's long relief job. Could also be: Brian Duensing or Cole DeVries. (DeVries would need a 40 man roster spot to open up)

According to Joe C.... The Twins are not putting Doumit on the DL... However Blackburn is being put on the DL with a quad strain...

Souhan offers 4 ideas in todays column: 1) Cut Marquis and (essentially) let Hendriks, Swarzak, Duensing compete for rotation spots. 2) Trade span for starting pitching 3) Reassign Vavra and bring up Bruno as hitting coach. Also suggests adding new coaches to bench, naming Molitor and Gladden. 4) Fire Gardy. What do you think? I'm ok with cutting Marquis and letting Hendriks (or others) get more ML experience although I doubt it would improve the club much in the short run. I've been advocating trading Span for starting pitching for awhile and I think Ryan will eventually do that. I don't think Bruno or firing Vavra is going to make any difference but, at…

I had almost cracked the code last night and had most of these numbers projected within a hundred dollars or so. I sent out an email and then BA posts them on their website. So, anyway, here are the Twins slotted values: [TABLE=width: 187] [TD=align: right]1[/TD] [TD=align: right]2[/TD] [/TD] 6.2m sup [TD=align: right]32 [/TD] 1.55m sup [TD=align: right]42 [/TD] 1.227m sup [TD=align: right]63 [/TD] 818.5k [TD=align: right]2 [TD=align: right]72[/TD] [/TD] 712.6k [TD=align: right]3 [TD=align: right]97[/TD] [/TD] 490.4k [TD=align: right]4 [TD=align: right]130[/TD] [/TD] 356.7k [TD=align: right]5 [TD=…

With the news on ESPN http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/7935993/los-angeles-angels-fire-hitting-coach-mickey-hatcher about the firing of there hitting couch for the angels. I wonder if TR will follow with the firing of Anderson and Vavra. Anderson just destroys any confident the starters have and tries to change them way to much. Every single pitcher just looks terrible after there first year. I just really want him gone before he destroys Diamond and Walters. Also with the 2nd year in a row of making our hitters look like idiots at the plate i would hope Vavra goes at the same time. So our players can play like they did before they got to the majors. Ev…

Reading the Mauer thread and the claims of Jokin that the Joe Mauer contract has paralyzed the organization. I offer a different opinion that calls for a different thread. On Joe Mauer... Yes he appears to be falling short of the 23 million dollar yearly value of the contract. However, I look at it in a positive light. To me his contract signifies the willingness to actually spend large money on large players. That was and is a new club in the Twins Bag and in the future can come into play again when the time is right. The time just may not be... RIGHT NOW!!! Yeah it's negative that Joe is taking up 23 million of the payroll for the production and health we have …

Derek Lowe threw 127 pitches yesterday. Near as I can tell 116 of them were sinkers. Almost all of his pitches were down and away. 51 of his pitches were out of the strike zone. The Twins got 6 hits (3 by Dozier) and had 4 walks (2 by Mauer.) http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfxg.aspx?playerid=199&position=P&season=2012&date=2012-05-15&dh=0 At what point do you start to blame Vavra or the Twins hitters for not making adjustments? The guy is throwing sinkers over 90% of the time. They are down and away. You are supposed to be professional hitters, for heaven's sakes go with the outside pitch and hit it to the opposite field!

From the Twins Twitter Feed: #Twins to reinstate Justin Morneau from 15-day DL prior to tomorrow night's game in Detroit. Option Chris Parmelee to Triple-A Rochester.

I was joined by FoxSportsNorth.com's Tyler Mason on tonight's Twins podcast. We talked about a lot of the team's topics. Later, I was joined by Scott Povolny of Territory Train to discuss upcoming trips. We went through the scoreboard and much more. Check out the show here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jack-steal/2012/05/16/sethspeaks-weekly-minnesota-twins-podcast

Well, this explains the release of Aaron Bates, but still don't like it

Future Twin? Waddaya think?

As many of you probably saw from AaronGleeman.com, Aaron got into a Twitter feud with Robby Incmikoski about Aaron's criticism of Roy Smalley's comments about Jason Marquis on the broadcast. I don't really have a strong opinion about Robby - I recognize that his particular job requires him to be a cheerleader because he's the guy that has to stand on the field and get them to talk to the camera. He also has to bear the brunt of sophomoric stuff like Valencia on Monday insinuating that Robby would "jump on Joe Mauer if he got the chance". For the most part, Robby does his job, and I don't have a problem with him. Today, Robby is continuing his semi-meltdown by tweeti…

According to the Star Tribune's Joe Christensen, the Twins are starting to identify who their number two overall draft choice might be next month: Kyle Boddy of DrivelineMechanics.com had a great breakdown of Appel's mechanics along with a fantastic scouting report on the Stanford right-hander who touches triple-digits. Boddy's knock on Appel was that he was not throwing his slider for strikes consistently. Meanwhile Zimmer, who pitches out of the West Coast Conference, has impressed scouts by hitting 98 miles per hour and peppering the strike zone. Said one scout to Baseball America back in February: Buxton, on the other hand, is a toolsy high school outfiel…

Figured something was up when he pitched 3 full on Wednesday, thought they might be stretching him out. If he can get back to his 2010 numbers it would be welcome, his location and velocity have been great, not that he'll be throwing mid-nineties much as a starter. Sounds like it might just be a contingency plan because they feel something could be wrong with Pavano, I don't think anyone else is going anywhere at this point, not that they shouldn't mind you. I like Duensing, what does everyone think?

Ok, let's say the Twins finally give up on Plouffey, and either send him to another team or sneak him through waivers this week. You need a 3b starter by May 21st (I think that would be the first day they could bring Valencia back up). What would you do, and why? For the sake of argument, let's assume that no other team is going to be willing to trade with the Twins between now and then, and no one else is going to be sent through waivers by another team between now and the 21st.

According to Hardball Talk, the Angels put Torii Hunter on the Restricted List to allow him to attend to a personal matter. Just horrifying news, and obviously 'innocent until proven guilty', but all three of Torii's sons are big-time baseball/football prospects, and this is true, all you can say is what a waste, a sad, sad story. One of many (too many) instances that helps put baseball into proper perspective and remind us that family is all that really matters.

The Twins: Clete Thomas = for whatever reason still at Rochester, posted a .143/172/.286 line with zero walks and 16 strikeouts in 28 PA. Eric Komatsu = still decent pickup, but posting a .227/.333/.227 line in 26 PA. Chris Parmelee = strangely made team out of ST, even though Morneau was on the roster as well--totally out of place after skipping AAA: posting a terrible .185/250/.272 line in 86 PA, striking out 21 times while walking only five times. Trevor Plouffe = playing all over like Cuddyer, but not being able to hit at all. Draws walks, but that is it: .133/.288/.217 in 73 PA. That's 217 plate appearances with .168/.263/.251 (.514 OPS). Once or current…