Chance

Mets are set to Waive Marcum, interested?

Mets are set to Waive Marcum, interested?

Agreed! Those are very interesting numbers. I do tend to agree that Fien (if he could bring back a decent prospect/player) would be good to let go. Hopefully Tonkin would be able to take over his role for the rest of the year. I also like your take on letting some no-future starters take their 2 decent pitches to the pen and see what happens. They may save their career like Perkins.

I have a problem with BABIP (luck) as a stat. If a pitcher isn't a strikeout pitcher he had better have a low BABIP or he is going to be out of the league. I like Jeremy Hellickson's take on this, “Yea, I just got lucky on the mound,” Jeremy Hellickson says dryly. “A lot of lucky outs … I hear it; it’s funny,” Hellickson said, not quite sure of the acronym. “I thought that’s what we’re supposed to do, let them put it in play and get outs. So I don’t really understand that. When you have a great defense, why not let them do their job? I’m not really a strikeout pitcher; I just get weak contact and let our defense play … I can either handle my business or I don’t …” I pitcher is expected to get outs and alot of times that is by a hit ball. I love WHIP as a stat because it displays a pitchers effectiveness as in sticking to the strike zone while not throwing up pitches that players can easily detect and hit. One thing that could be added with BABIP is "the eye test." How hard were the out BIP? How great was the defense? The thing that makes Deduno so effective with the Twins is batters inability to get a clean hit on the ball, they usually result in grounders back to him or slow grounders in the infield. Is he lucky or just pitching well enough to keep hitters off-balance and from having the BIP hit clean and hard?

Real nice. Thanks for this.

So we will be like last season but worse?

I'm believe I heard that berrios will pitch a little in ST games to prepare for the WBC. Is this correct or did I mishear/read? If he his it will be interesting to see how he does. Even if he is pitching against AAA talent at the end of ST games.

My #1 twins prospect!

I think we could see Berrios and Rosario in the top 3 after this season. Rosario is my favorite prospect. I believe that he could eventually put up Mauer MVP numbers (with a lower average) while playing a decent second base.

2015.... CF Hicks 2B Rosario 1B Mauer LF Arcia 3B Sano RF Buxton DH Doumit? SS Micheal C Pinto? Rotation Meyer May Gibson Berrios Hendriks/Bard/Hermsen/someone else... all potential.... Not much proven but its a promising future. Might not amount to much more than KC had with all their prospects coming up.

I do praise you for taking a different approach. But really besides the fact that he (might not) reach the majors, there aren't a lot of negatives.

Also, many reports say he throws between 93-99 mph. The 93-95ish mph are his 2seamer which is pretty impressive. He's above average for a major league pitcher in the velocity department and leaps and bounds ahead of the Twins options. We need front of the rotation pitchers and span would never have brought us a big league or big league ready starter that could eventually even have the potential to be a top of the rotation guy. We got the best player we could have.

Any chance that hauser will get stretched into a starter? I know that wasn't the plan going into today but just a thought. And is it obvious that hirshfeld is getting called up with Hendriks almost a lock to join the twins this weekend?

In my blog I have Gibson in the rotation which he will be. I also had us signing dempster and bedard. They are players that will be cheap enough and will sign 2-3 year deals. With those three along with diamond and Hendriks with Walters next in will be a major difference to the start of the season. When you take liriano Pavano baker and marquis contracts off the books that will be enough to extend diamond Walters and Hendriks while also paying for one of the FA starters and a chunk of the others. They will be able to afford it. I also mentioned in mine that they won't really sign any bats because they have enough where they feel like they can compete. I believe we can with what we got for bats. Another thing to keep in mind was how difficult the schedule was to start the year. If the twins keep winning series they will be contenders for the division and at the trade deadline they could get dempster which would make it easier to sign him next season.

I mention that I would trade Blackburn for whatever I could get.

Starting Pitching- Ryan Dempster Erik Bedard Scott Diamond Kyle Gibson Liam Hendriks Bull Pen Brian Duensing- long reliever Anthony Swarzak- long reliever Alex Burnett- middle reliever Deolis Guerra- middle reliever Jared Burton- RH setup man Glen Perkins- LH setup man Lester Oliveros- closer Starting Lineup LF- Josh Willingham CF- Denard Span RF- Ben Revere 1B- Justin Morneau 2B- Brian Dozier SS- Trevor Plouffe 3B- Danny Valencia C- Joe Mauer DH- Ryan Doumit Bench Jamey Carroll Chris Parmelee Drew Butera Wilkin Ramirez I don't think that the Twins are going to chase after relievers this year. They seem to feel that they have plenty of arms there to fill holes and still have depth in the minors. I believe that it is possible that the Twins will have Oliveros close instead of Perkins because they like him as their lefty setup man. I feel that they know their starting rotation needs some work and some front line starters. I don't think they will be able to get Greinke or Hamels so I feel that they will go the little cheaper route with Bedard, and Dempster will be the one that they will spend a bit more one. With Plouffe playing much better defense at 3B, I think that they will be willing to slide him back to short. I realize that the defense doesn't look too promising but it is what it is. The Twins are probably going to give Valencia another chance before giving up on him and trading him for a grounds crew worker. I don't have Blackburn on here because I hope that he is packaged for some minor leaguer. I also think that Span might get sent elsewhere with Blackburn and or Capps for one great minor leaguer or a couple decent ones. That would move Revere to center leaving him as the everyday starter there and leadoff man. In that scenario, Parmelee and Ramirez would platoon right field. Some of the players would have to be signed to new deals. After signing them and the free agents payroll should sit at about the same as this season, give or take 10 million dollars. I think that it is a competing group what about you guys? Thoughts? Your own theories?

Starting Pitching- Ryan Dempster Erik Bedard Scott Diamond Kyle Gibson Liam Hendriks Bull Pen Brian Duensing- long reliever Anthony Swarzak- long reliever Alex Burnett- middle reliever Deolis Guerra- middle reliever Jared Burton- RH setup man Glen Perkins- LH setup man Lester Oliveros- closer Starting Lineup LF- Josh Willingham CF- Denard Span RF- Ben Revere 1B- Justin Morneau 2B- Brian Dozier SS- Trevor Plouffe 3B- Danny Valencia C- Joe Mauer DH- Ryan Doumit Bench Jamey Carroll Chris Parmelee Drew Butera Wilkin Ramirez I don't think that the Twins are going to chase after relievers this year. They seem to feel that they have plenty of arms there to fill holes and still have depth in the minors. I believe that it is possible that the Twins will have Oliveros close instead of Perkins because they like him as their lefty setup man. I feel that they know their starting rotation needs some work and some front line starters. I don't think they will be able to get Greinke or Hamels so I feel that they will go the little cheaper route with Bedard, and Dempster will be the one that they will spend a bit more one. With Plouffe playing much better defense at 3B, I think that they will be willing to slide him back to short. I realize that the defense doesn't look too promising but it is what it is. The Twins are probably going to give Valencia another chance before giving up on him and trading him for a grounds crew worker. I don't have Blackburn on here because I hope that he is packaged for some minor leaguer. I also think that Span might get sent elsewhere with Blackburn and or Capps for one great minor leaguer or a couple decent ones. That would move Revere to center leaving him as the everyday starter there and leadoff man. In that scenario, Parmelee and Ramirez would platoon right field. Some of the players would have to be signed to new deals. After signing them and the free agents payroll should sit at about the same as this season, give or take 10 million dollars. I think that it is a competing group what about you guys? Thoughts? Your own theories?

Most of us "outsiders" feel like the organization doesn't do a great job of moving players through the system. Does he feel like we have a case or does he think they do a great job? I highly doubt any player would through his management under the bus but I'd think it would be interesting to know if he feels they handle things correctly.

Nelson pitched 4 innings allowing a hit and a walk while striking out 5. He throw 60 pitches in his first start of the year after making 6 relief appearances. I believe that he could end up making the Delmon Trade look a lot better for us if he is left in as a starter. He throws hard and strikes people out.

and now a double play to finish out the 3rd inning.

In the third he has given up a double followed by an error by Levi Micheal

Cole Nelson is pitching today for Fort Myers. He hasn't given up a hit through the first 2 innings and has gotten 3 strike outs with no walks.

Cole Nelson is pitching today for Fort Myers. He hasn't given up a hit through the first 2 innings and has gotten 3 strike outs with no walks.

Liriano just showed his potential

​Every year I look at the Twins and say, "they have potential." I don't believe that I'm alone in this either. This season I felt that Pavano could potentially be a workhorse with an era around 3.90 and play the part of a veteran leader. Baker would finally be over his arm issues and be somewhat of an ace. Liriano would lighten up and dominate again. Blackburn would be able to be average and hold down a spot in the rotation. Hendriks would win a job over marquis and look rather steady in the rotation. We all know how far off I was. Not one starter has been close to there potential. I don't believe that I ask to much. I don't believe that they can all be aces and rival the Phillys rotation. I just want them to play as well as I believe they can. The same goes for the bats. The lineup we ran out against Oakland should potentially win us a lot of games. We have fast table setters with span and revere. Mauer could potential find his power again and hit the ball to right. Willingham would show a lot of XB power and drive in a bunch of runs. And the bottom of the lineup could look respectable. I find it safe to say that the bats haven't played up to there potential (apart from possibly Willingham). I feel like they can all reach my request. They don't have to all be all-stars, just play within themselves and do what they have the ability to do. Im not here to start up any fire Gardy/Andy/vavra chants, frankly I'm sick of hearing it. But something most be causing this team to miss its potential. Not one or two players, but essentially the whole team. Not just once, but two years now. What will it take? I still believe that this team has the "potential" to win a playoff series against the Yankees or whoever. For some reason though we fail as a team to reach our potential. It's sad because this is a team to be excited about but they disappoint more often than they excite.