stringer bell

Interesting that Ryan wasn't afraid to be critical of Plouffe during the in-game interview by DickBert during the final game. He pretty much dismissed Trevor from the outfield (fine) and pointed out his inconsistent play at third and highlighted his "lateral mobility" issue as well. Plouffe played better than I ever expected in the field (the bar was set pretty low) and produced power, a commodity that the Twins really lack. If he can pick up the "D" and OPS in the .700s, I don't think the Twins have a real problem at third base.

Alexi closed the season with a little push. He finished above .600 OPS and had 21 SB in 22 attempts, which sets a team record for single season stolen base percentage. I hope it gets him a better job next season. After hearing Ryan not mention Casilla in his summary of the middle infield, I think it is a given that he'll be non-tendered.

Two thoughts: Plouffe drew a lot of walks before he started his ridiculous power streak. I think he can be selective and, of course, getting ahead on some counts will give him more BP fastballs. I don't think he'll ever hit for a high average, but I can see an OPS over .800 with plenty of dingers.Cleveland doesn't need Jack Hannihan with Chisenhall healthy. Hannahan is a LH hitting 3B. I know he played a couple innings at SS against the Twins, but he is basically a 3B only. I wonder if the Twins would be interested in picking him up. His rep is that he's a plus defender.

Hendriks looked good yesterday. That doesn't guarantee him a spot next year, but I'm sure he'll be considered. As a couple have said, the Twins need to add two starters--I would say one thru trade and one thru free angency. We have seen that usually a starting staff goes to about 8-10 pitchers and with the unproveness of some of the Twins options, they should go at least that deep.

I mentioned Trumbo early in the season. He had a real hot stretch right after I mentioned him and the conversation appeared ridiculous. Now he has come back to earth a bit. As far as I'm concerned the Twins could have one or two bashers like Willingham and Trumbo and it wouldn't hurt the team.

Nobody wants to win the batting championship. Since Wednesday morning Cabrera is 1-8, Mauer 0-4, Trout 0-7 and Jeter 0-7 and likely done for the evening. That is 1-26 from the four top hitters in the league.

And to think I went to the trouble of DVRing this mess.

Or maybe not.

I didn't think Mauer would catch Miggy, but Miggy has had a bit of a downturn and Mauer has been raking. I had intended at some point to either start a thread or blog about the use of both Doumit and Mauer. It seems to me that offensively, catching about half-time or less is a real benefit to both guys.

The Twins' success against Detroit tells me that they aren't that far away. Then I see them play a series against the White Sox, who are a .500 team except when they play the Twins, and I think this team is on a par with the mid-nineties shlock that got put on the field. BTW, Diamond has exactly a year's worth of starts now, and is 13-13 (lifetime) with a high 3s ERA. That sounds about right, but also sounds like a third starter on a Central pennant contender.

Carroll is what he is. He's never had a regular position and he shouldn't even with the last place err....fourth place Twins. His maximum playing time should be as a "10th regular" filling in at all three infield spots. I think Carroll has been decent in the field and just a tick above what I expected with the bat. He is void of extra-base sock and he'll be 39 next season, but, on balance, he's been the Twins best middle infielder.

Let's talk about this for a second. What are the positive differences? Carroll hits about the same, is usually in the .650-.700 OPS range, and while generally more consistent than Casilla, is certainly not so much better that we think of him as much of an offensive upgrade. Then there's the defensive side. Casilla's got better range, isn't 93 years old, and makes the slick play. Give me a choice, and I think I might take Casilla. Alternate opinions welcome. Carroll has been a late-bloomer and with a bat in his hand, he has undoubtedly been better than Casilla. Carroll at 38 has been versatile and a good defender, not great. Casilla has played almost exclusively at second, where I believe he is the best middle infield defender the Twins have. Casilla will be 29 at midseason next year while Carroll will play 2013 at age 39. Casilla can be a threat on the bases, Carroll not so much. Carroll has never had a disabling injury, Casilla has spent at least four stints on the DL. If I had to pick one to start 140 games at second base in 2013, I would pick Casilla, but if the Twins are looking at those two as utility options, Carroll is the better choice despite his age.

I'm a pretty big Casilla fan too, but I can't blame the manager. Gardy stuck with Alexi a long time and he didn't progress. The thing that I am lamenting is that as the seasons have gone along, Casilla has matured. The mental errors have diminished and he has made quite a number of hustle or heads-up plays. He just hasn't been able to produce the amount of offense necessary to be a regular player and by choice has limited his versatility. If the Twins had a competent SS both offensively and defensively, I think Casilla could fit in fine as the ninth starter, hitting 9th, playing good defense, stealing bases and having his contribution with the bat considered a bonus.

Except when he faces the White Sox, Fien has been outstanding.

At work, watching GameDay. So far the Twins produced a run with a Revere single, stolen base (37), 3-0 Mauer groundout and a wild pitch. Valdez gave up a run in the bottom of the fourth on two walks and two singles. Further damage avoided when Revere threw out a runner at the plate for the third out.

I will be sad if Casilla is non-tendered, but he hasn't justified a million+ dollar contract with his performance at the plate. However, Casilla has had his best season in the field (a few too many errors but great range and a number of web gems plus an excellent turn of the DP) and if he could get on more he would be a real force on the bases (17-18 in stolen bases this year) so it is disappointing that he just hasn't hit enough to merit playing time.

Great for Plouffe to go deep again. Bert & Dick were talking about next year's MI. They indicated they thought two light hitting middle infielders would be fine if they had productivity from 3rd (Plouffe) and the OF. I agree, especially if the light hitting guys can really field. So far I'm not seeing it from Florimon, who has hit acceptably if he was a defensive wizard, but he's not. Too soon to tell on Escobar. I'll throw this out to see if the Chief is around. If they want their best defensive middle infielder who can steal bases, Casilla is the best option.

I'll echo what everyone else has said. He's earned a shot, but that is all. We all know the Twins have too many guys that are stuff-challenged and depend on command and pitching to contact.

I agree, although I wouldn't call Robertson a "fine LOOGy". He has made many LH hitters look bad, but too many (Prince comes to mind) have figured out his one-trick pony routine. Robertson needs to come up with a better compliment to the slider to be an effective reliever. Burnett has been fascinating this year. He was mostly very effective the first 2/3 of the year, despite very mediocre peripherals. I think he needs to be effective in the spring, but he would have the inside track for a spot. What about Guerra? He will be out of options.

I didn't watch the entire game, but if the middle infielders could produce like they did today, the Twins wouldn't have lineup problems at all. Florimon and Casilla can certainly play defense and run. Just a little bit of hitting from them would be sufficient. On Deduno (and De Vries), both guys have put themselves in the mix for next year. Good for them, but if I were GM, I certainly wouldn't count on either one and certainly not both.

The problem with trading Span is that he's had two straight injury riddled seasons and I wouldn't count on getting a lot back. We're certainly not getting a good starter back. The problem is that this might be the Twins way of saying that they are choosing to move Span and they sell low in the offseason to do it. I wouldn't consider Span's 2012 "injury riddled". He missed 9 games with an injury and will miss 15 more days before he returns. It is absolutely in the Twins' best interests to play Span the rest of the year and bring his value up.

I think there is a bigger risk with moving Morneau. He has been mostly healthy, and he's over .800 in OPS--pretty hard numbers to replace. The nominal replacement is Parmelee who, if he hits all year like he has the last two Septembers, would be fine. I don't think I would consider Parm as much proven as Revere is. Morneau could put up boxcar numbers next year. I am not convinced that he will, but there certainly has been improvement over the course of this year. Finally, what the Twins really lack offensively is power. Moving Morneau would remove one of their top power threats.

Span is a good ballplayer and a bit better leadoff guy than Revere overall, but losing him in place of Revere is a minor dropoff. There is a replacement on the team (Revere) and more replacements in the pipeline. Trading Span is the lowest risk option in an attempt to get pitching for 2013 and beyond.

Too short of a career, numbers depressed in a pitching-rich era, and playing in Flyoverville, Tony woulda/shoulda/coulda been in the Hall, but all of those factors work against him. He was a great all-around player--surprising speed, rocket arm--who always could hit, even on one leg.

Two parts to this: 1) Missing bats--Hendriks doesn't have the kind of stuff challenge hitters and get strikeouts. It shows when he is hitting his spots, but getting long counts with lots of foul balls. 2) Lack of movement and deception. The fastball looks really straight to me and when Hendriks changed speeds or threw a breaking ball, it didn't appear to fool hitters. As written above, I also thought he threw a lot of good pitches at the knees and didn't get much help from the ump. I don't know what the solution is, although I have seen guys succeed with less in their tool kit than Hendriks has.