COtwin

Bert did say Sep-sedes. Hilarious.

.280 on his weak side is overboard. If he hits 230-240 from left side and 280 from right like last year his OBP will be .380-.400. That is good enough. Waaay better than what is up here. Note: Hicks walked and single against right-handers

Schafer!!! Take charge! He wasn't even watching the ball. He was worried about the infielders.

"And finally, Jordan Schafer played left field for the whole game, going 0-4. The Red Sox starter was Wade Miley, a southpaw, against which Schafer has usually struggled. I find this interesting. Schafer has gotten to hit against primarily right handers this spring and so has Hicks, with Schafer gaining the upper hand. Schafer OPS - .721 and Hicks OPS - .679. What interesting is that hitting from the left side has been Hicks major weakness and he is actually posting a .689 OPS against right handers. I for one am encouraged by this as Hicks was serviceable from the right side last year. Schafer against lefties meanwhile has miserable .286 OPS. I am sure I am barely coherent here but I Schafer is barely out performing Hicks and he is getting his ABs in his favorable split, while Hicks is doing most of his work from his weak side. I understand not bringing Hicks North because he needs to work on things, but Schafer has not won the job. Schafer's 1223 major league ABs (almost as many as Dozier) say that his .229 BA and .621 OPS may actually be what he is capable of. Hick's 467 Major league ABs say that his .201 BA and .606 OPS will (probably) increase. Schafer is who he is and Hicks is already as nearly good as he is at the plate and better in the outfield. Hicks will not lose us more games than Schafer, bring him North.

Tom Kelly???

I will be a little surprised if Bruno is not retained somehow. We had a top ten offense in most important categories, and we were actually improving at the end. Molitor gone as well is surprising. They really don't want the infection to spread, if neither of these guys return.

I will say that I hope Grady hooks on somewhere else. Good Luck Gardy. Thank You.

Will Gardy leave a list of nicknames and player profiles for his successor. Excited for all of these guys to start from scratch and have a chance to work their strengths.

"Nolasco throws a lot of breaking stuff, and in his first two starts we've seen too many flat pitches and floaters. But at the same time, this is a guy who's pitched in southern Florida for the last eight years, and is now trying to spin all kinds of pitches in the chill of the springtime Midwest." I hope this is not the case. It scares me to think that we signed a pitcher who will not be affective early and late in the season because of weather. It would be a shame especially if we start making the playoffs again. If it is the case it is an indictment on our scouting department.

I know this will seem very conspiratorial. It feels like MLB just bought Tanaka for the Yankees. The first year is paid for already. I hate A-Rod, but I have a feeling that the Yankees are not going to have to pay the remaining 60ish million on his contract. I expect some other suspension or event will cause it to be voided. If this happens then Tanaka is basically free for the Yanks for the first 3-4 years of his contract. And the Yanks have seemed to care about money, lately at least. Teams should have to live with the bad signings they make and the Yankees have a bit of history trying to weasel out of them.

Part of me wants them to decide to just do the surgery now. My nightmare for this is that they wait a couple more months before pulling out the blades. This shouldn't be that hard to diagnose. There should be lots of data on how injuries like this heal and what to expect. If this type of injury has any tendency to linger if surgery is not performed than he should get cut now. If they do perform surgery in a couple of months than somebody(s) need to look for other lines of work.

Part of me wants them to decide to just do the surgery now. My nightmare for this is that they wait a couple more months before pulling out the blades. This shouldn't be that hard to diagnose. There should be lots of data on how injuries like this heal and what to expect. If this type of injury has any tendency to linger if surgery is not performed than he should get cut now. If they do perform surgery in a couple of months than somebody(s) need to look for other lines of work.

I'll give him credit for Meyer out of those 3. Even a blind squirrel would have picked Buxton. Edit: He also made a few other good picks and signings to be fair. But He has missed about as much as the next guy.

Ha Jokes on you. I would put down money and hope to lose it.

I think that there is still a chance he figures it out. If we let him go, I think he ends up somewhere else. I will be pissed if we remove him from the 40 man, but keep Pedro or Cole, or (insert other pitcher with no upside). If we are gonna clean house then lets do it across the board.

I think I would be much more worried if Doumit and Hermann were the only options. Pinto makes the idea of a Mauer switch to first base much more palatable in my opinion. Trade Doumit. Hermann moves to the bench as a catcher / corner outfielder (rarely but still useful). Pinto becomes everyday catcher. If Pinto works out then maybe Morneau gets resigned to a reasonable contract to play DH and back up Mauer. Gardy would still have three guys who can play catcher. Keep one infield utility and a flexible outfielder and we still have room for a power bench bat, two if we stop this 13 pitcher craziness.

If he is honest he probably would blame himself a bit. Frankie has 2 clunkers in 17 starts. Even after giving up 10 runs his WHIP is better than any Twins starter, as is his ERA. I would trade half the guys on our rotation to have him back. Rick probably would to.

"Vance Worley is one example of a professional who never quite mastered this pitch. " Does anyone know if he is working on it now? It would be a shame for the staff to allow him to leave that for The offseason.

No. He needs to be able to work himself through jams. He is too inconsistent to come into a tight situation. I think his make up is as a starter.

Albers is pitching today.

Of course Hernandez was recalled. Just ignorant. Hey Ryan I want my MLB TV subscription refunded!

Agree with everything MWW said. They have to start transitioning to the future now. Not next year. Hicks is a great example why. He is getting his struggles over with now instead of next year or the year after. Almost everyone struggles when first brought up. Better to learn your craft against the best then to learn it against has beens and never will bes and then still have to learn against pros. Gibson is ready or close. Let him make adjustments now in the majors for major league hitters. Hicks was probably rushed but he is to the point IMO that AAA lessons aren't going to help and he is already turning the corner. The Carroll's and the Thomas's and the Pelfreys are not in our future plans and they are barely better and maybe worse than the young guys they are playing for. I got a huge earful last time I said this. I am not saying tank the season. I pay for MLB TV every year to watch the twins. Playing guys like I mentioned above (Carroll, Ramirez, Thomas, Pelfrey, Hernandez, even Correia) might get us a couple more wins this year. But it will be at the cost of developing younger players. And what do a handful of wins matter for this year anyway. The difference between Gray and Stewart was 2 wins in a season that was lost in May. I hope those two wins were worth it.

Thomas needs to be on a very short leash. If he keeps hitting like he has been known to, than I want to see Hermann and Arcia get all of his at bats. I know Thomas is our "only" CF but he still needs to hit the ball or it won't matter that he is a good average CF. also he is not a prospect and does not need checked out.

Fine with me, unless they decide to do something dumb like send Hicks down. .356 OPS in April vs .707 OPS in May. He is figuring it out. He needs to stay up and keep tasting success. If Sizemore or anyone else for that matter started to look like a viable option what does that do for us other than put unneeded pressure on Hicks? Mastro, Sizemore, Thomas, Richardson, etc. None of these guys figure into the future. Better to let Hicks keep working through it. Shoot at the rate he his going I think he turns into a viable ROY candidate.

He is on pace to nearly double his strikeout number of last year 88 vs 150ish. It seems to me he is driving the ball with much more authority this year. His Slugging % is up around 30 points and he is on pace crush his doubles number from last year. I take all of these as positives that outweigh another 70 or so strikeouts. Especially as he has only grounded into 2 double plays as opposed to 23 all of last year. He is getting out at roughly the same rate and he isn't taking anyone else with him.