Thursday Notes from Hammond: Diamond, Parmelee & Presley

The Twins clubhouse had a vibe to it that can only be appropriately summarized by a line from the movie, Major League: You don’t want to celebrate too hard in front of guys who just died.

After news broke yesterday that Scott Diamond was on waivers, he learned he cleared today and faces a career decision of either accepting an assignment to Rochester or find another organization that will take him. In addition to Diamond, Chris Parmelee and Alex Presley were also placed on waivers.

The Twins now have 36 of 40 roster spots accounted for however Jason Kubel and Jason Bartlett will be placed on the 40-man sometime this week, likely Saturday.

[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

Diamond clears waivers, has 48 hours to accept assignment

Scott Diamond cleared waivers and has been informed that he has 48 hours to make the decision to report to Rochester or find another major league team.

“[Kyle Gibson] had an unbelieveable spring and Duduno threw really well,” Diamond said outside of the clubhouse. “They definitely threw better than I did. Gibson definitely deserves that fifth spot. I felt what I had going for me is being out of options and being a lefty just trying breaking up that right-handed rotation but I think with the numbers he put up this spring in was too hard to ignore.”

After his last outing on Tuesday, manager Ron Gardenhire shared his thoughts on the possibility of Diamond not making the roster.

"We like the guy an awful lot, he's been around here and we've seen him have success. Good kid. I also don't want to see him in the minor leagues pitching somewhere. I don't think that is fair to him. I think he should be in the big leagues - totally up to him and his performance. If it doesn't work out here, I wish that he would end up in another big league uniform."

Having led the team in walks this spring, the Twins staff realized that Diamond needed to work on his ability to live in the zone.

“He needs to be sharper, he walked too many. He needs to improve his command, control. He probably has to get some confidence back,” said Twins assistant GM Rob Antony.

The 27-year-old left was coming off a season in which he admits he was hindered from his elbow issues. With one of his biggest weapons in disrepair -- his curveball -- Diamond said that he sought out Glen Perkins who told him that the breaking pitches were the last to return to normal.

“I didn’t think coming back into the season that it would have been as bad as it was,” said Diamond. “but coming from surgery I talked to Perkins when he was coming back from his surgery and he said the last thing to come from him was his slider. He told me to continue to work with it and I felt like it started to come back towards the end of the year last year and spring training this year it had been a pretty effective pitch for me.”

If Diamond accepts his assignment, he will make $282,500.

Parmelee clears waivers, Presley claimed by Astros

The Twins also placed Chris Parmelee and Alex Presley on waivers. Whereas Parmelee cleared, Presley was plucked by the Astros.

The Twins want to see Parmelee become a more aggressive hitter, one that had shown flashes of power in 2011 and again in Rochester.

“He needs to regroup. He hasn’t gotten the job done,” Antony explained. “He’s had opportunities. We need him to be a run-producer. He needs to be a profile guy who can play first base, play the corner outfield positions and drive in runs. And to me, he’s become way too passive at the plate, taking pitches, taking strikes, taking first-pitch fastballs down the middle. He needs to go up there with the mentality that he’s going to do some damage trying to be aggressive.”

Antony also expressed a slight concern earlier this week of being too left-handed so Chris Colabello may have had the inside track to make the roster to provide additional right-handed pop off of the bench.

"Number one, we need a right-handed bat. Number two, he's doing all the things we want Parmelee to do," Antony said of the decision to keep Colabello over Parmelee. "He goes up there and tries to do some damage. We need someone to go and try do something. Swing the bat, be aggressive. We're going to face some left-handed pitching and he definitely has a role that can help us on this club."

Presley’s departure signals that the Twins are prepared to enter the season with Aaron Hicks as the starting center fielder and the possibility of either Eduardo Escobar or Jason Bartlett as the backup.

Bartlett a “super-utility” player on roster

“He’s a good athlete,” Antony said about Bartlett regarding his ability to play multiple positions. “When you get down to the tail-end of your roster, I think the manager sort of has to determine how he’s using different guys and it doesn’t make much sense to fill out a roster any other way than how he’s going to use them.”

Antony spoke highly of Bartlett’s veteran presence and clubhouse leadership and mentioned that the team may be trying to change the environment of the clubhouse which has been criticized by members of the media for becoming too passive.

“I would say the second half of spring training he looks completely different from the first-half. He’s taking much better at bats, he’s drawing walks and he’s hit some balls hard now lately. From day one he’s fielded the ball well, he runs the bases well and he does a lot of things you look for and that helps.”

Florimon working on offense

With the weather and the delayed start to his spring season, shortstop Pedro Florimon and hitting coach Tom Brunansky took to the backfield to work on some situational hitting. Brunansky barked out counts and runners on base, stressing over and over the importance of Florimon putting the ball in play with two strikes.

Florimon put the ball in play 37% of the time with two-strikes, below the league average of 41%. He also hit .140 in those situations, also lower than the league average of .199.