COtwin

MLB might even ask a team to keep drafting him just to block him from becoming a free agent. Boras has screwed up enough of the system as it is.

Deduno will make the roster if he continues pitching like he has the last few games. I think his ability to miss bats and induce weak contact is to valuable to let go. Florimon in my opinion has earned a long leash and is becoming an important part of the line up. His bat has cooled off compared to the start of the season but it looks to have stabilized to slightly above league average. That coupled with his defense and energy and I think he can stick until we get a higher ceiling prospect up to take over. I love what swarzak has done this year. He doesn't have the sexy setup or closers role but as long relief he has been very steady. It seems like he can come into a game that is close to out of control and calm it down. I like that we have a chance with him coming out of the pen. These three appear to me to be near locks for the 25 man much less the 40 man. Presley, Walters, and Roenicke seem to have fair chances at sticking at least on the 40 until better pitchers move up.

I wish him luck. I hope he has a blessed future and finally makes it.

Carroll should not be starting. He is a bridge to young talent at best and he is probably not on the roster next year. This season is over. There is no point in Carroll taking time from younger players. Same is true for correia and pelfrey soon. The only reason you go with him is to win another game or two over the course of the rest of the season. That is the same shortsightedness that the brass appeared to have last year.

I think Nick makes a great point. I have wanted to see Deduno this year as I have the high hopes for him still. I reacted with anger when I saw the front page, but this cools me down quite a bit. Gibson will be able to push pretty much anyone out of his way. Mike mentions the inning limit that Gibson might or might not be on. I think that out Med staff has a chance to redeem themselves or totally @*&% up the Twins future this year. It might be smarter to not do an innings limit, but just keep very open lines of communication with Gibson and see how he does. If there was a limit I could see something like the following... Through four innings. Twins down 3-7. Gibsie's last start. Gardy to Andy, " He still hasn't reached 160 innings Andy what do I do? The choose your own adventure instruction manual for a rotation that Tom left me doesn't cover this. You know what screw it just send him out there, anythings happens I can lay it on the med staff." or End of August. 7th inning. Twins up 3-1. Gibsie's velocity waaaay down last inning. Barely got out of a bases loaded jam with a nifty double play. Kyle keeps rubbing his elbow. Gardy to Andy. "He still hasn't reached 160 innings Andy what do I do? The choose your own adventure instruction manual for a rotation that Tom left me doesn't cover this. You know what screw it just send him out there, anythings happens I can lay it on the med staff." I Jest, I think.

Ah. This Crow tastes delicious!

Ok. I say we get 5 pitchers that... 1) throw a lot of no hitters 2) don't walk batters 3) strike lots of guys out Seems simple enough. Thanks John. Interesting analysis.

You have to love a player that slumps with a .708 OPS.

Did I say anything about tanking? I said if we aren't going to compete then sell out for development. The downside is a few extra losses that replacement level players like Butera, Mastro, and Carroll would have saved us. Accept those few extra losses are the difference in Appel or Gray and a much less projectable player. Would have preferred more Dozier, Parmelee, Plouffe, and even Hermann.

No point in Carroll over Dozier if we start sacrificing the development/evaluation of younger guys for a few extra wins this year, our "rebuild" will take longer. We are not getting to the playoffs this year. So let the young guys play and develop, or not. On this same note. This is why we have the crappy draft position this year, high but not high enough. If we committed to developing young guys, the silver lining is top draft picks. No chance at Apple or Gray, because we tried to win a few meaningless games, at the cost of player development.

Gibson or "Batting Tee" Hernandez. Um tough choice

They say Schmoe has a nice Cutter and keeps the ball down and in the park. The also say he's their kind of pitcher, PTC.

Isn't he just another marginal, middle of the rotation guy? Wouldn't it be better to figure out the 10 or so rotation arms that we already have in the system? If we can start weeding some of them out then I have no problem with O'Sullivan, but I have a sneaky suspicion that by the time the season ends we will still be evaluating our own arms. It seems like Gibson has to be up for an extended chunk this year. I still think Hendriks needs a really prolonged look before we give up on him. Devries, Deduno, and Walters all need a chance to prove that they can stick. Where do we find the innings? Diamond, Correia, and (in my opinion) Worley are all locked in.

Never mind Gardy and TR both said Gibson isn't ready yet and Hernandez starts on Monday.

Gibson. This is a great excuse to bring him up and let him pitch on Monday. We could even keep Hernandez up as a gesture that there is still a hope for success. Just letting him skip a start and see what Kyle does. Diamond is the only pitcher that inspires true confidence in me that we are going to win. Correia still scares me at times although he did get through yesterday. I want a little more hope in the rotation. The current guys could do with a little reminder that there are 4-5 guys looming just over the horizon.

Yet another glaring example of Gardenhire's ineptness with young players. Even if he does get credit for Justin's turn around, how pathetic is that? One player in ten years publicly acknowledges his coaches good input. Is everyone else just to shy to give credit where credit is do? Or is there just none to be given? I agree with Wagwan. Gardy is not the one to help these up and comers find success. Do we think Hicks would have as many hits as he does now without Bruno?

Looking at Sano and Buck's considerable OPS leads in their leagues just gets me all excited for the future.

Evidence probably not. But we already have evidence that Gardy can't win when it matters. Some of those teams had a lot of talent and went nowhere. Maybe just having someone around they are familiar with will help the young guys transition easier.

The ONLY argument that needs to be made is 0-12. Kinda hard to look at all the talent that could be coming and think, "Man we are gonna win the Central almost every year." I have little/no faith that Gardy can get us a WS appearance, much less a win. It scares me to think how much of the coming era of talent could be wasted with him as manager. We can even stay in house for the hiring. Doug or Bruno certainly seem to be able to get guys performing up to potential.

I think that speaks volumes to his approach at the plate. He was looking fastball and (finally) didn't miss when he got it. Of course that was all Rendon was throwing , but Hicks had no idea if the pitch was going to be coming at his head or in the dirt. It was great to see him make third that easily on a very hard hit ball that got to the wall quickly. He moves so effortlessly.

Hicks has twice as as many hits as Gardy has playoff wins in the last ten years.

Gardy should get an extension after he actually gets us through a playoff series. How about a year for every series win. Otherwise one year contracts. Maybe the whole Twins staff should go on one year contracts. Performance based, I like it.

I hope not. I feel like Gardy does makes those drastic roster changes, instead of just resting one, to often. We need to get back to winning series. I don't see how he could justify essentially bailing on the first series of the year, and a home one at that.

So this is obviously a small sample size, but looking at Correia v Sanchez, I was very pleased. Sanchez definitely has the ability to miss bats, but Correia was very efficient. 5/80 or 2/10. I gotta admit I thought we missed out on Sanchez, but maybe Terry is right. Of course Gray didn't look to bad in his first couple of appearances last year so maybe I should just enjoy the fact that we won an enjoyable game. Damn it's nice to have baseball coupled with hope again.

Nice Win. Pleased with Kevin's first outing, seems to be exactly as advertised. The defense stood up behind him except for one or two, minimized damage. Great to see the bench pull through for us.