Minnesota Twins Talk

Does Capps have any trade value right now? I highly doubt that in a trade they could get the equivalent of the draft pick they would have gotten simply for letting him walk in the off-season. It's bad enough that they gave up the draft pick to re-sign him, but they paid him 2-3 times as much as other similar RP's got in the offseason.

Span, on Weaver's no-hitter: ------------------------------- When you’re off to the kind of start the Twins are, you’ll blame just about anything: Center fielder Denard Span, who went 0 for 4 with a strikeout, hinted that Weaver might be assisted by the rockpile in left-center, which Span said might interfere with a hitter’s field of vision. "He kind of throws across his body, and I think his cross-body motion kind of ... when he lets the ball go sometimes ... the ball’s coming out of the rocks," Span said. "But there’s nothing to take away from his no-hitter. He still pitched a great game. But over the years, you checked the stats, he’s definitely a better p…

I was a little surprised to read this blurb last night in a Pioneer Press article by John Shipley: “He [Terry Ryan] lowered the team's payroll by about $15 million, but the Twins are still spending in excess of $100 million for this team, which looked solid coming out of spring training, even as right-hander Scott Baker inched closer to what wound up being season-ending Tommy John surgery.” I’ve been operating under the assumption that the opening day payroll was at about $94 million based on Strib reports, etc. Is the payroll for this disaster really over $100 million now? Here are the numbers I found: [TABLE=width: 187] [TD=width: 186, bgcolor: transparent]Joe M…

With the torn ACL injury suffered by the Yankees Mariano Rivera last night while shagging fly balls during warmups in KC, the Yankees might be looking for some bullpen bolstering. I'm assuming the capable David Robertson goes to the end spot but that New York might be interested in a 7th or 8th inning option. Do you think Matt Capps would be appealing to them in trade for a mid-level prospect in return?

are better than Thomas and Plouffe? The Twins added Mastroianni and Ramirez in the offseason, seemingly to be big league potential talent. Instead neither has been promoted to the Twins while Thomas and Plouffe have been terrible for the Twins (aside from turning one great double play for Plouffe). Hughes and Burroughs were at the bottom of the OPS leaders and next . . . Thomas and Plouffe!

The Twins have been shutout two days in a row. They have had two (or less) bats available on the bench in each of those games. The starters have been horrible. The bullpen has been better than expected but not great. And the offense has not been good. On Twitter during the game, at one point I said that I think that there will be two DFAs and two options for the Twins. That would mean that four new players would be on the Twins roster by Friday's game in Seattle. Two DFAs - I think both Clete Thomas and Matt Maloney will be DFAd. Two Options - I think that it's possible that Alex Burnett and Liam Hendriks get optioned to Rochester. Who should be called up? In …

Why is Clete Thomas still on the roster? He is horrible with all the strikeouts and has done nothing since his first series with the Twins. I would rather see Revere and his baby arm than Thomas. How is Thomas still getting AB's when he is hacking? Doesn't he know that is not the Twins way to approach an AB?

I had that exact exchange on Twitter and I may be Nieve in thinking that no the Twins org is not broken. The Twins have been in the playoffs 6 of the last 10 years. Two years ago if you would have done a poll of this question the results would have been way different than if you asked it today. My view that the Twins are going through a little rough patch, but this is a process that the organization has to go through. All mid to small market teams have about a 5 year window to win a world series before they need to hit the restart button and struggle for a bit. After last year the Twins hit the reset button by letting Joe Nathan, Michael Cuddyer, and Jason Kubel leav…

With the way the Twins have been playing, this is the perfect time for managment/coaches to start playing hardball with the players... By that, I mean send a few guys packing (waivers or options) then hold a team meeting and ask, "Who wants to be here?" Make it clear that those who don't play up to expectations are not going to be in the majors very long... As an example, send down Hendriks.... Bring up Diamond or DeVries.... Put one of them in the rotation... Give them a shot... If they stick, keep them, if they don't, send them down and bring up the next guy in line.... Send Thomas packing... Bring up Carson... Same deal... Do the job or lose your job... It's a bit extr…

Out of all the things that the Twins were afraid of being bad this year, starting pitching was probably fifth behind hitting, fielding, health, their bullpen, and their health again. So far, the Twins have the worst ERA in the ENTIRE MLB, and that, while they don't have top of the line starters, is not acceptable. At times, most of the pitchers in the Twins rotation have shown that they could be dominant, especially Liriano and Blackburn; unfortunately, they are the streakiest pitchers in the game. While this is clearly a rebuilding year, even though nobody will call it that, the Twins definately need to think about dealing an outfield prospect or two for an above-average…

That is what made this organization strong before Bill Smith destroyed. When will we start doing it again!!

After pleasantly perusing the site since its inception, I've noticed a severe souring of the community's collective outlook. I noticed this myself as I watched the latest foray into pitching hell. It's made me wonder; how bad would it have to be for me to stop watching/listening/gamedaying (made up words are fun)? With our diverse group, what say ye? For me, I'm too much of a homer. All the "fire this guy"/"drop that guy" talk is completely opposite of my thoughts (perhaps valid commentary, but not my perpective). I'm watching every game I can, right down to where we call up BJ or Tim for a spot start.....it could happen, or maybe we get this thing turned around. The w…

I thought since the twins pitchers have been so good at giving up bombs I thought this would be an interesting topic to discuss... If anyone has any metrics on this please input (especially if it relates to our Twins pitchers). So, what failed pitch do we see get hit out more than others, is it a flat slider, change left up, low 90s fastball down the middle, sinker with no sink, etc...

With this dismal of a start (even at my most negative I would not have projected this), it might be wise to rethink how the Twins approach the free agent market and the development of their prospects. Maybe that means calling for heads, which seems popular around here today, but it doesn't necessarily mean that. The Twins have been notoriously bad in the Terry Ryan era of signing stop-gap options who invariably end up being terrible (Mike Lamb, Tony Batista, Rondell White, etc.). Couple this with the fact that the Twins promote prospects (2011 aside) slower than anyone, and you have a mess on your hands in terms of not injecting new talent on the roster. (Jim Thome, Or…

Just an interesting comparison of two free agent signings playing against one another tonight, Jamey Carroll and Albert Pujols. Carroll G - 22 AB - 84 R - 13 H - 18 2B - 3 3B - 0 HR - 0 RBI - 6 BB - 12 SO - 11 SB - 1 CS - 1 AVG - .214 OBP - .320 SLG - .250 OPS - .570 Pujols G - 23 AB - 92 R - 8 H - 20 2B - 8 3B - 0 HR - 0 RBI - 4 BB - 6 SO - 14 SB - 0 CS - 0 AVG - .217 OBP - .265 SLG - .304 OPS - .570 To be clear, I'm not suggesting that Jamey Carroll is anywhere near the baseball player, or hitter in particular, that Albert Pujols is. This is rather just a comparison that I found to be almost comical, showing that with a small …

Justin Morneau will be flying back to the Twin Cities to see the hand doctor. I hate to speculate, but if it was really just "sore", wouldn't they give him a day or two off rather than rushing him off to the hand specialist? We can hope now. He was staying healthy and making himself tradeable. Hopefully this is nothing serious!

To make room for Butera Which means that Morneau (likely, you know the Twins' doctors) is ok and will not go to the DL. This (other than the Butera call up) is good news on both counts.

Be sure to listen to last night's SethSpeaks Weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast. The one-hour show had several guests. Beloit Snappers RHP AJ Achter called in on their off day. Twins Daily contributor Jeremy Nygaard came on to talk about his weekend watching the Beloit Snappers. Andrew from Twins Fan from Afar also called in to talk about the Beloit Snappers. Finally, I was joined by Cody Christie (NoDak Twins Fan) to talk about several Twins topics. Check it out here and let me know what you thought, what types of topics or guests you'd like to hear from.

Will he make it to FA after this season? Would it be worth it for the Twins to make a run at it? Let's assume for the sake of discussion that the Twins would actually be willing to spend the money on him if it made sense strategically. Personally, I think several things would happen before it would make sense to throw big money at an "ace" type FA like Grienke. #1: Stop the revolving door middle infield. I don't really care who it is, but we need to know we have a SS and 2b who can play over 100 games at their positions in 2013. If someone doesn't prove this year they deserve the starting job and will hold it in 2013, then this needs to be addressed in …

Reasons to be optimistic about Liriano on the mound today: 1.) He will be fresh. In his three starts he's only thrown 74, 91 and 76 pitches. 2.) Only two of the 22 hits he's surrendered have been homeruns. 3.) His mound opponent, Jeff Niemann, is also 0-2 and has also failed to pitch past the 5th inning yet. 4.) Francisco has gotten over 5 runs per game of run support from the Twins this year compared to only 3.8 last season. Outlook: A modest bounce-back game from him today.

Working simply with the pitchers that we've got under contract already, what (if anything) would you do to mix it up to try and make the best of what we've got? Here's my ideas: Bring up Scott Diamond or Cole Devries, and give them a shot in the rotation. If the first one tanks, swap them Put Swarzak in the rotation and move Blackburn to the bullpen to be long relief. Make him our "mop-up" guy who comes in when we're down 7 runs in the second inning. Use him at least every 2 or 3 days, so we can finally see if there is any truth to Bert's frequent assertion that he sometimes struggles because he is "too strong" when he rests too long. Send Maloney to AA…

This is the first year, and yes I know it is early that I have been impressed with Casilla. He is batting .268, which isn't great, but it isn't bad in the 9 spot and having a lot of speed. He has been better in the field, he is taking more pitches. I think if we look at bright spots this year, we don't talk about Casilla very often, I can say he has been someone I have liked watching this year. If he can take even more pitches, draw a few more walks, and steal some more bases we have a decent 2B.

I am just wondering what everyone thinks of Ben Revere? I really like him and think he deserves the chance to start everyday. I really don't understand why we keep sending him back down. We aren't going anywhere so we may as well get him going in the majors. Anyways I am no expert just an opinion.

Oakland offically signed Inge today and released Luke Hughes to make room. Anyone think the Twins might grab him? Would be an interesting turn-around.

I listen to the Twins on the radio a fair amount, in the car, while I am working in the yard in the evenings or on the computer at work. I am curious what everyone thinks of the radio broadcasters, Cory Provus and Dan Gladden. My thoughts...so far, I really like Cory Provus. I think he does a great job of "painting" the game for the listeners. He sounds good and has a very good feel for the game. I am not a fan of Dan Gladden. He seems to state the obvious way too often and adds very little to the game. The way he talks seems very condescending at time, to both the fans and, IMHO, to Cory Provus. I don't recall him doing that to John Gordon. Has anyone else n…

I think the scariest thing about the Twins current situation is the lack of pitching in the organization as a whole. The current Twins pitchers on paper do not look sufficient to compete at a high enough level(On Paper). Scouts and rating services do not list anybody in the farm system as top level pitching prospects outside of the injured Gibson. This is clearly a What if... because it's too early to throw in the towel. I'm hopeful that the Twins will have a decent year but when the reality of the Twins pitching staff on paper sets in... Plus the lack of pitching prospects at the upper farm level... If you are honest... most of us believe that this could be a long …

Through 21 Games the Twins are 6-15. We knew this was going to be a rough start to the season because of the schedule. Take a closer look, we are 1-1 against central division opponents and we are only 5.5 back of first, more importantly we are only 4.5 behind the Tigers. Forget the record, if you were told on opening day, that we would only be trailing the Tiger's by 4.5 games after this opening stretch of games most of us would have been very encouraged. We have a shot of competing this year. What is more surprising that Baltimore leads the East? That Boston trails the East with a Losing record? How about the fact that the Angels are last in the West trailing bo…

In the majors Be an inside or outside the park HR? Valid question i think

I know it may be quite some time (if ever) before it happens but getting Morneau back at 1st base would really help this team settle in. I have to believe that was what Ryan and Gardy were hoping for despite how well Parmalee played this spring. Doumit would benefit far more from being DH (which was supposed to be the plan) and occasionally spelling Mauer at catcher, without having to worry about RF as well, I believe it would help him at the plate. Having Plouffe and Revere get more time in RF without working in Doumit would also help things. I like what Parmalee brought last fall and in the spring but if Morneau was healthy enough to play 1st during the spring, …

According to MLBTradeRumors.com, the Angels have released veteran outfielder-DH Bobby Abreu. The Angels have decided to surf the youth movement by recalling super prospect Mike Trout rather than continuing with the 38-year-old Abreu. Because of defensive limitations, the Angels used Abreu more as a role player than a starter, which supposedly frustrated the long-time starter and former All Star when his time was reduced. Unable to provide much in the ways of defense, Abreu's offensive output has taken a downward as well. Prior to the 2010 season, Abreu reached base at a very impressive .404 clip. Since his age-35 season, however, he has managed to reach safely at a …