stringer bell

De Vries has a victory and a shaving cream pie in the face to show for his time with the Twins. I think eventually we'll see Hendriks, but it wouldn't surprise me if they give Manship a start. With the off day today, the Twins can go Walters, Diamond, Liriano against the Cubs. They wouldn't need a fifth starter until the Brewer series.

I expected the Twins team we've seen in the past three weeks. The injuries to Blackburn, Pavano and Baker made an already underwhelming rotation into the worst in the major leagues. This team is improved offensively and defensively. The bullpen is light years better than last year and they are playing more fundamentally sound baseball. Competent starting pitching will make them respectable.

I don't know if I could say that Dozier has made a lot of spectacular plays. He looked like he would be steady and reliable when he arrived, but has had a prolonged hiccup of unacceptable defense at short. I don't think his poor defense will continue and it probably helps his confidence that he hasn't been benched despite his poor defensive play. Over the course of a season, players go through bad stretches. IIRC, Dozier has had less than stellar stretches with the bat before. I think the kid is a keeper and continued playing time will iron out some of the kinks.

Mijares got the wake up call he needed. He definitely looks trimmer, is throwing harder and throwing more strikes. Sometimes it takes a shot like being non-tendered to give the committment needed to succeed. I always liked Mijares, but I don't blame the Twins for not getting the rperformance out of him or letting him go.

I'm glad Carroll was at third on the last play.

One more performance like that and many might get their wish--a DFA for Gray.

Now, Gray for two innings and they save the back end of the bullpen.

It probably won't matter, but this choice seems pretty foolish.

Blackburn, whose injury may have hindered his effectiveness, replaces Pavano, whose injury definitely impacted his effectiveness. Hard to say how he'll do, but he really can't be any worse than Pavano right now.

I have a pro-lefty bias, and because of it I'm for signing him if it's cheap. I don't trust Blackburn, De Vries or Liriano, Swarzak is a long man/middle reliever as is Manship. I'm not confident that Walters will last until the All-Star break. They might get themselves something like they got out of Pavano (high end) and he couldn't be as bad as Marquis. I say give it a shot.

I have submitted often that, with merely a suspect rotation, the Twins would be a .500 team, and in the AL Central, that means contender. The offense has been spotty, but has shown signs of improving. The defense is much improved, although there have been quite a few errors in the last 10 days or so. Relief pitching is okay, bordering on solid and fundamentally the Twins are doing much better. On the defense, with Revere and Span in the outfield and decent gloves at catcher and the middle infield there is a real improvement. The Twins have turned a lot of double plays and are not messing up many of late. With the good range of Span and Revere and decent range at short and second, the Twins are getting to more balls in the middle of the diamond. The corners? Not so much, but the best way to play good defense on the corners is to swing the bat well. The Twins need to rebuild their rotation on the fly. It looks like Diamond will stay for awhile. I'm thinking he'll be pitching for the Twins when they are good again. I am not close to sold on Walters or De Vries, but they've been better than any of the original five that started the season. Let's hope that they can produce another starter or two and perhaps get one at the deadline in exchange for one of the relief pitchers or Doumit or Carroll.

Diamond has been able to get RH hitters out, which is something that Duensing has struggled with. He needs to be pretty fine, because he is not overpowering, but he does have three pretty good pitches and good command and composure. I like all the GB outs he is getting and really like that he has given hardly any free passes. Sure, he is due for some regression, but if he keeps on doing what he's been doing, he'll be fine.

Further on Plouffe--I think that so far he has been a "mistakes hitter". Most of the hits and homers have come on fat cookies while he has struggled mightily when facing good breaking stuff and well-placed fastballs and change-ups. If he can manage to keep walking and driving mistakes, he should get enough hits to get the average up over .200, but not too high. If he gets 400 PAs, he might hit 20 bombs, and that is intriguing.

The conventional wisdom is that a lefty with average stuff can be quite successful and I think Diamond's performance bears out the conventional wisdom. The ERA isn't going to last where it is, but six straight effective starts is pretty good. I can see Diamond staying in the Twins rotation for quite awhile.

This is Plouffe's year to either acheive or not. This weekend has been a positive, but overall he's been a disappointment. I like his power and throwing hasn't been much of an issue, but he still needs to establish himself. Danny V hasn't done enough in Rochester to win promotion back to Minnesota. I guess I am okay with the four guys playing three+ positions and seeing what shakes out.

The unofficial scorer (Dick Bremer) ruled it a hit. I thought it would be ruled a hit too, although I thought Plouffe could have/should have made the play.

Diamond has been consistent. He is doing most everything to maximize his effectiveness. I think he throws just hard enough to not be a soft tosser, throws strikes, gets ground balls, mostly holds runners on and seems to throw well when there are runners on. The sub-2 ERA won't last, but he might be in the rotation for several years. Maybe Bill Smith wasn't a total idiot. Keeping Diamond sure looks like the right call.

Plouffesie can see the Mendoza line! Too bad for him that they are leaving Cleveland.

The Indians official scorer ruled that a hit, so only two runs are unearned.

Diamond was set up pretty well, facing a banged up Cleveland team that struggles mightily against lefthanders. I've thought he was sharper a couple other times, but he keeps making his pitches and getting lots of grounders. I'll take it, but I will LOL about the Twins making the playoffs.

Asdrubel costs himself a knock by diving headfirst into first.

Dozier's good baserunning negated by the "contact play".

On Dozier's double--it was definitely a hit, but Lopez' defensive decision cost the Indians a base. I can't see how you can charge Lopez with an error for gambling that the ball would go foul. The Cleveland official scorer apparently has been very lenient. I don't like lenient official scoring because it skews all the stats-hitting fielding and pitching.

Dozier with two infield hits and two errors and should have been charged with a third. I'd like to see him clean it up on defense.

I thought it was a good risk at the time. It seemed to me that Garza wouldn't fulfill his promise in Minnesota and that Bartlett was replaceable. I thought Young could develop into an elite hitter. After one year, I had seen enough of Delmon to believe he would never develop any further. I was hoping that the Twins would trade Young when he value went up, but no such luck.