Parker Hageman

The Twins’ home opening crowd gathered early in downtown, filling the area’s establishments with a hum that can only come from the exhilaration of skipping a day of responsibility in order to consume the first baseball game of the season in gorgeous weather. Even after several years of ineptitude and 90+ losses, Monday would still bring the first sellout at Target Field since August 2013 and all would be forgiven with a clean slate. Well, as clean as a one-and-five slate can be. Credit the Twins for doing the best they could to distract everyone with the new items around the ballpark. There were new bars, new food offerings, new drink rails, new hooded sweatshirts. But the festivities and feelgoodery would last only until the end of the seventh inning when it became clear that the same old problems exist.A mixture of poor defense, bad bullpen and unproductive chunks of the lineup would sink the Twins for their first home loss in 2015. Before the start of the game, Trevor Plouffe was asked if the team was looking for respite from the steady barrage of elite pitchers like David Price, Anibal Sanchez and Chris Sale. With a 2-for-19 start to his season, no one would fault the Twins’ third baseman for seeking more humane matchups. Plouffe just shook his head. “This is the big leagues and you gotta want to face those guys and if you don’t want to face those guys then you shouldn’t be here. We are also in a tough division for pitching and we have to face them all year.” After striking out in each of his first two at bats against Royals’ starter Danny Duffy, in the bottom of the seventh Plouffe launched Duffy’s 1-1 offering into the left field bleachers to bring the Twins within two. The home run would be his 36th at Target Field - the most by any hitter. Before the game Plouffe acknowledged that the team’s offensive shortcomings but believed there would be a feast at the end of the famine. “We obviously didn’t hit like we wanted to hit the first six games but I think that we’re going to be very capable and score some runs this year. So I don’t think anyone is going to be too worry about the way we started. We’d like to have hit better but we’re not worried about it.” Plouffe’s contribution on Monday would not be nearly enough to help starting pitcher Trevor May, who would pitch well but ultimately be undone by the stomach-turning performance from his defense behind him. In the third, Lorenzo Cain was able to score Salvador Perez on a sacrifice fly which was set up earlier in the inning by several middle infield misplays by Danny Santana and Brian Dozier. In the sixth, Cain doubled to right with Mike Moustakas on base. Cain moved up to third and Moustakas scored when Torii Hunter threw the ball back to the infield to simply no one in particular. In the following at-bat, Cain scored on Eric Hosmer’s deep drive to the spacious left-center field bullpen alley. Twins left fielder Oswaldo Arcia gave chase and covered just enough real estate to have the ball deflect off his glove at the wall. May left the game after 78 pitches and several effective innings with a scattering of a few hard hit balls, including Kendrys Morales’ 405' shot to right-center field. Manager Paul Molitor said he opted to remove him from the game after the Royals’ contact grew louder in the sixth despite the low pitch count. “All the guys behind me earned their way here and deserve to be here and I know everyone’s working and doing everything they can,” May said after the game refusing to place the blame on his teammates in the field. “Sometimes you just need them to hit it a little bit harder or softer.” Following Plouffe’s seventh inning home run, the Twins were within two but a six-run eighth inning put the game firmly out of reach. The inning was punctuated by two hit batsmen, a fumbled grounder by Danny Santana and four Twins pitchers needed to record three outs. When asked whether the defense of the game was concerning to him, Molitor was straightforward. “We just have to play better.” Easier said than done around these parts as the defensive blunders are more of the same for the Twins. Sunday’s matinee in Chicago featured several routine plays fall that general manager Terry Ryan called out during his pregame media session. “We gave them way too many outs. Ironically they didn’t come back and hurt us, the three misses,” Ryan said of Eduardo Nunez, Eduardo Escobar and Kurt Suzuki’s inability to catch pop flies. True, Sunday’s White Sox game mistakes did not hurt but the Royals took their ounce of flesh like good teams do. Continuing the trend of giving away outs -- either because of fielding miscues or because of inferior coverage -- will be painful. The Twins entered Monday’s game as one of the worst teams at turning batted balls into outs. Only the Yankees and the Dodgers have converted fewer balls into outs. Based on a seven game sample, this team has a lot of repairs to make before it will be able to win games consistently. As far as the home opener goes, at least the weather was good. Click here to view the article

The Twins season kicks off this week and is already a glorious mess. On this week's No Juice Podcast Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman discuss the final 25-man roster, Ervin Santana's suspension and the subsequent moves, and adjust their expectations for the season. Listen up.Other topics include Wisconsin sports success, a new Indoor Football League team in Minnesota and more. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #50: 2015 TWINS SEASON PREVIEW Click here to view the article

When it comes to hitting, Torii Hunter is less a student of the game and more of a scholar. At 39 years old, whether he wants to admit it or not, Hunter has slowed a few steps in the outfield. Advanced fielding metrics have pointed out that he is no longer able to chase down fly balls like he once did. But that's not the reason the Twins signed him. They were most interested in his offense. During batting practice, if he is not honing his own swing he’s lobbing observations and tips to other hitters. He is pulling teammates aside and showing them a better bat plane, a more efficient hand path, a way to open their hips on an inside pitch and more suggestions. He will grab a young player and head to the cages for numerous tee swings, hop to impart some wisdom that will help make the player’s swing better.As he nears the end of his second decade in baseball, what has allowed him to continue to be a viable contributor has been his unquenchable and relentless work ethic. “Me hitting is just a lot of heel pain,” Hunter explains as the reason that at his age he is able to keep pace and evolve in an young man’s game. Endless amounts of work with the bat in his hands. Tee work. Front toss. Pitching machines. Batting practice. Hunter says he goes through this routine until something is bleeding. When he’s not swinging lumber, he is visualizing his at-bats. In discussing what has allowed him to remain relevant at the plate for almost 20 years while the game has chewed up and spit out countless other talented athletes, Hunter sounds like one part hitting coach, one part life coach. “I just kind of know what guys are trying to do to me. I make adjustments a lot quicker than I did when I was younger of course. You can say that in life as well. In baseball, if you don’t make adjustments, you don’t succeed. Just like in life: If you don’t make adjustments in life, you don’t succeed.” Sure, it is an oversimplified look at the game (and life) -- make adjustments and you will succeed -- but a glance at the Twins lineup will show several young hitters who need to follow that instruction. Of course, it is not that simple. Players in the early stages of their career can be told to make adjustments but they lack the experience to understand how -- like a soldier who hasn’t seen combat. Meanwhile, Hunter’s been in the trenches for years now. “I was that type of guy that couldn’t have a weakness,” he confesses, sounding dangerously close to an applicant spouting a cliche in a job interview. “If I had a weakness on a slider away I’m going to work on it so much that I can take that weakness and make it a strength.” Had it really become a strength or was it rhetoric? Since 2009 Hunter has hit .352 as a right-hander on sliders from same-sided pitchers down and away in the strike zone. The rest of MLB’s righties hit just .238 on those types of pitches. Only Hanley Ramirez (.379) and Vladimir Guerrero (.353) fared better. Whether the success was a product of hard work or a conveniently shared statistic, either way, if you leave a slider at the bottom of the zone, Hunter will figure out how to turn it into a hit. Download attachment: strike-zone.png The reason he worked so hard at improving that aspect of the game is because that is where pitchers were attacking him when he first came up in Minnesota. His free-swinging tendencies earlier in his career created a hole that he set out to close. More heel pain from repetition in the cages. Over the course of his career, Hunter has seen an ebb and flow of different strategies from opposing teams. One time it might be an abundance of breaking balls or another might be fastballs inside. Three years ago pitchers would try to throw breaking balls down and away, which Hunter said he solved by driving them to the opposite field. “They were pitching me away in 2012 and 2013 and I just shot the ball the other way. I had to go where they were pitching me and then I saw they were started pitching me in, I made the adjustment as well.” In those two years Hunter accumulated 102 hits when going the other way. In 2013 his 57 hits tied him with Joe Mauer for the ninth most opposite field hits. As pitchers began to throw him inside more again last season, Hunter's rate for driving the ball to right field dropped too. Does he have a sense for how pitchers might approach him this coming season? "This year I don’t know. I don’t know where they are going to pitch me or what style they are going to pitch me, might get more off-speeds because I think I’m gonna hit fourth and fifth and maybe sixth sometimes so you get in those power positions, you are going to get more off-speeds so I might have to go the other way.” With a younger player, the response might have ended at "I don't know”. Hunter doesn't know but that's because he knows the circumstances change depending on the situation. It’s much more complicated than that. "There’s a lot more to baseball than just hitting. You have to know what is going on, what count, what inning, who’s on the mound, who’s on base for you, is it a speed guy or is it a slow guy -- if it is a slow guy you are going to get more off-speed, if it is a speed guy you are going to get a little more fastballs. Who’s hitting behind you, is it a lefty or righty or is it Miguel [Cabrera] or [Albert] Pujols or whoever it is. There’s a lot into the game and you just gotta know that and that’s being a good student of the game." Hunter begins to tread into the territory of lineup protection, a notion that statisticians and the analytically inclined suggest has little effect on the outcome. From the Baseball Prospectus book Baseball Inside The Numbers, former BP writer and current member of the Rays organization James Click said that “there's no evidence that having a superior batter behind another batter provides the initial batter with better pitches to hit; if it does, those batters see no improvement as a result.” Hunter says his experience tells him that effect exists. Hitting ahead of Pujols or Cabrera has given him the opportunity to see better pitches compared to the times when an unproven player follows him. For Hunter this season, if he does hit fourth, fifth or sixth, there is a strong likelihood that he could be batting ahead of some powerful yet unpolished hitters like Oswaldo Arcia and Kennys Vargas or possibly lighter hitters like Eduardo Nunez or Kurt Suzuki. “In the end, I could hit you out as well so if it’s a guy who is hitting behind me who really is not a power threat or just getting to the big leagues and hasn’t proven himself yet, they are going to pitch more around [me] and try to get me to chase,” Hunter explains. “And if they walk me and it’s like ‘alright I’ll go for the guy who hasn’t done anything yet’. Of course if it is a guy hitting behind me and he’s hitting for power and he’s done some great things in the game, now he has to be careful to both of us and he has to throw strikes and he has to go after me before he goes after this guy who is proven as well. So it makes a big difference.” Download attachment: USATSI_7245561_154617946_lowres.jpg Hunter has witnessed his walk rate drop over the last several seasons, going from near 10% in 2011 to 7% in 2012 to 4% in 2013 and finally 3% last year. Did he feel like he chased more? Pressed because he was in the middle of a potent lineup? Just felt that he had to swing to drive in runs? Hunter had a perfectly good explanation for why he rejected free passes. “My walks went down because of hitting second,” he says. “I think in any lineup you hit second they are coming after you. They don’t want to get to the three-four-five guy I don’t care who it is, they are going to go after that guy -- the number one and number two guy. So I’ve been hitting second since 2012, so of course my walks go down because I’ve got [Mike] Trout at first base who is going to steal so they gotta try to throw a fastball so they can try to throw him out. Then I had Austin Jackson who’s at first base, he’s a base-stealer, gotta throw a fastball to try to get him out. All plays a part of it.” Hunter’s “you gotta swing” attitude seemingly flies in the face of what the analytics community wants to see out of a two-spot. That particular spot in the lineup has morphed from a light-hitting player who was focused on moving runners over to one who needs to occupy the base behind the leadoff guy. As far as an on-base threat goes, Hunter has compiled a .339 OBP from the two-spot which ranked 50th among 86 total two-hitters with a minimum of 1000 plate appearances since 2000. Hunter has also walked just 66 times (79th out of 86) which pales in comparison to Nick Swisher who drew 239 walks in just 400 more plate appearance in that time. But Hunter approaches that spot with a run-producer’s mindset. He has registered just four sac bunts. Mentally, he says that if pitchers are peppering the zone in order to avoid putting more runners on for the heart of the order, he will take advantage. His .304 batting average was the seventh highest in that group and his .460 slugging percentage was the 14th highest showing that he can provide punch. Where the rest of the game has seen its strikeout rates increase as velocity has climbed and the strike zone has expanded, over the last two years Hunter has seen his strikeout rate dip. Again, he attributes this phenomenon to hitting at the top of the order rather than at the middle of it where he was swinging with lethal intent. “Even before I got to the two-hole with the Twins and all that, the reason why I had more strikeouts is because I was hitting fourth, I was hitting fifth. I had to supply power. All your guys that hit for power they have high strikeouts -- except for Barry Bonds, he’s a different animal. Jim Thome, [Ken] Griffey, Ryan Howard, [Giancarlo] Stanton, I don’t care who it is, if you hit for power you are going to strike out.” Based on what Hunter sees from his approach by batting order position as well as the hitters surrounding him, the 2015 season might be an interesting mix of power and strikeouts. With manager Paul Molitor’s desire to have Hunter hit cleanup, frequently combined with the probability of having a less than polished hitter like Vargas batting behind him (as he was on Opening Day), then the natural conclusion is that Hunter will try to supply more power but have a higher number of strikeouts as pitchers go after him with off-speed stuff without the fear of having to face Cabrera or Pujols. Would Hunter rather be the two-hitter or does he have a preference for driving in runs and letting it fly? “Doesn’t matter. At this stage, I don’t care. Especially over here with Paul Molitor, I told Paul even before I got here I said wherever you need me, I’m there. Because I’ve hit everywhere. I’ve hit leadoff early in my career. I’ve hit second the last three years and had great results, hitting .300 in the two-hole since 2012. I’ve hit third, I’ve hit fourth, I’ve hit fifth. I’ve been a power guy for a whole lineup, I’ve been that guy that wasn’t just a power guy that was the guy who would try to control the game hitting second. It doesn’t matter. I can make adjustments in any position.” Hunter finishes his thought and pauses. He then flashes his trademark smile. “Wherever I am as long as it isn’t lower than sixth.” Click here to view the article

With just days to go before the 2015 regular season, the Minnesota Twins’ rotation took a huge blow on Saturday when Major League Baseball announced that starting pitcher Ervin Santana had violated the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program policy and will be suspended for 80 games.In the Twins official statement, the team says they “were disappointed to learn of the suspension” but supports MLB efforts in ridding the game of the banned substances and will not comment further on the matter. Santana released a response as well saying “I am frustrated that I can't pinpoint how the substance in question entered my body” and “I will be more vigilant of medications I take so that I don't commit another mistake”. Reports says that Santana tested positive for Stanozolol (also known as Winstrol), an anabolic steroid. The drug has a reputation for aiding in the recovery process while avoiding adding bulk which is why it has been associated with pitchers. Just this year relievers Arodys Vizcaino and David Rollins and now Santana have tested positive for the drug. Still, stanozolol has been considered one of the more easily traceable performance enhancing drugs said ESPN. According to medical experts, the drug had no known masking agents as of 2005 and can linger in the system for several week to a month to allow for detection and needs six to eight weeks of use to have a benefit to the athlete. READ: Twins And Ervin Santana Agree On A Four-Year Deal The Twins signed Santana in December to a four-year, $55 million contract which required forfeiting a second round draft pick in order to do so. Minnesota announces that left-handed reliever Aaron Thompson will be recalled to the roster and Mike Pelfrey will return to the starting rotation in Santana’s place. Click here to view the article

RE: Trading Perkins The reason this hasn't happened or won't happen in the near future is 1. The Twins have made it clear they don't want to sign long-term contracts and flip the player. This is why Willingham was not traded after year one. For whatever reason, they do not want to treat players like commodities. 2. The Twins are often overly optimistic about their chances of being competitive. If you think you are close to competing, you would need a closer. Frankly I don't see it happening unless Perkins eventually asks for a trade. And even then because of his contract which states his last year becomes an option if traded (he could lose money) and playing in his backyard, I don't see that happening.

"Parker, you old clickbaitin' so and so."

Minnesota Twins closer Glen Perkins was in a very enviable position a year ago. He was coming off two consecutive very strong seasons as the Twins closer, a representative at his first All-Star Game in New York, and had just signed a contract that kept him well-compensated and in a Twins uniform for the next five seasons. But after a superb start to the 2014 season, an injury torpedoed the latter portion of the year. Now, recovering from injury and a decline in velocity, Perkins is looking to make adjustments that will ensure he remains one of the game’s premier closers. “You are always trying to adjust. And if you want to be successful you have to adjust ahead of the curve and not behind it. That’s in the back of my mind.” When he thinks about it, Perkins believes that the knee surgery he had in the offseason prior to 2014 may have played a role in his velocity decline last year. At the same time, as a consumer of baseball analytics and advanced research, the Twins closer is also acutely aware of the realities of getting older. “I felt like I was playing catch-up a little bit all last year,” Perkins said. “I felt I was out of my comfort zone, kind of the whole season. I’m probably around the same [velocity] this year than I was last year so maybe it has got something to do with being 32 instead of 28.” Research has found that starting around the age-30 season, a pitcher’s velocity tends to make a southward turn. No one stays young forever. Save for a catastrophic arm injury, it typically is a gradual decline, but a decline nonetheless. A reduction in velocity does not necessarily doom a closer, either. For instance, former Twin Joe Nathan saw his velocity begin to slip after 2007 and followed that in 2008 with just as successful a season if not better. He continued to produce at high levels even after having Tommy John surgery and with a slower fastball. Whereas Nathan remained primarily fastball-slider pitcher, Perkins entertains the idea of adding to his pitch selection, even if not in the near future. The change-up has become the pitch du jour and Perkins toys with it when playing catch with guys like Brian Duensing just to ensure he can pull it out when necessary. “I play catch with it, I work on it, but I don’t throw it until I have to,” said Perkins. “I’ve already started to work on that because it was a good pitch when I was a starter and became a bad pitch when I was a reliever. It’s something that I don’t all of a sudden want to be like ‘oh crap, I can’t throw a fastball by anybody I need to throw a change-up, how do I throw a change-up?’” The new change-up revolution in the Twins clubhouse intrigues Perkins, to say the least, and pitching coach Neil Allen’s theories have grabbed his attention. “I don’t want to give away all his secrets. I know that he’s a little bit analytical but not really but the stuff that he tells me that I see from an analytical side and it’s stuff that makes a lot of sense. I talk to hitters when we are playing cards after the game or standing in the dugout or whatever and the kinda things they are thinking, so he’s thinking from a hitter’s perspective on it.” Perkins does not feel like he needs to a third pitch at this point in his career. He will cross that bridge when he gets to it. More importantly, he needs to stay healthy. “Last year, for five months, whatever my velocity was I was probably having my best season as a reliever up until August.” From April until the end of June the closer was striking out 32 percent of all opponents faced while walking 4 percent. Those figures put him among the American League’s elite relievers. Even with a slightly slower fastball he was in the middle of what was shaping up to be a career year. However Perkins said his forearm started to respond differently after outings, bullpen sessions and throwing in general. Perkins described the injury and the effect on his pitching as the sensation of after maxing out on arm curls. His forearm would be exhausted and numb. It was difficult to engage the muscles and resulted in an overall lack of connection with the ball. For pitchers, this is a significant problem. “You can’t finish a pitch,” he said. “I would try to throw a slider I just couldn’t get the last little bit of the whip. You don’t have the spin. So you lose movement, you lose the life. The life and movement is the spin. Guy with late life spins the ball faster than a guy without late life.” The lack of that “last little bit of whip” on his slider played particularly poorly in the second-half of the season. While it had been the premier pitch in his arsenal in the first-half, racking up a swing-and-miss rate of 43 percent and a .118 opponent average, it became a considerable liability in the season’s back-end. The swing-and-miss rate dropped to 21 percent and hitters managed to levy a .282 average off of it. Download attachment: strike-zone (4).png Download attachment: strike-zone (5).png You do not have to be a baseball expert to see the contrast between his slider location as the season progressed. Without the slider diving down, his ability to induce swinging strikes suffered. Like most baseball players who thrive on competitiveness and pride, Perkins continued to try to take the ball whenever summoned. He went out to pitch “five or six times” while trying to get additional treatment and a few extra days of rest. Each time he would hope to rebound and that the muscle inflammation would go away and he would return to being the team’s shutdown closer. It was then when he started to consider the alternatives. “You try to tell [the staff] how you feel and it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse and you are hoping that they say ‘you know what? let’s shut it down’ and then it’s not me doing it. Even though that’s what I wanted, that's what I needed to do.” On September 16 Perkins was called on to hold a 2-0 lead against Detroit. After allowing several base-runners, Perkins was close to escaping the inning when he surrendered a three-run home run off the bat of JD Martinez. It was a 92 mile per hour fastball that didn’t come out of his hand well, like others before that one. That was the moment he knew he had gone from shutdown closer to shut it down, closer. “I had no business being out there. I knew I had no business getting major league hitters out.” Tests revealed that he had a combination of muscle and nerve irritation and inflammation in his forearm. One was getting inflamed and irritating the other. The consequence was a disconnect when finishing his pitches. “It wasn’t a hurt, it wasn’t a pain,” he said trying to make sense of the ailment. “It was a lack of any pain or feeling. Pitchers talk about feel and there wasn’t any of that. There was no feel for pitches, no feel for getting out front, no feel for being able to finish a pitch.” That, Perkins says, is no longer an issue at this point. In his outing on Wednesday, throwing in consecutive games for the first time in the spring season, Perkins was hitting 91 to 92 with his fastball. Down but not entirely unexpected for this time of year. An oblique strain slowed his spring this year and limited his appearances. He’s aware that he has been behind but is catching up quickly. Even with time off, Perkins feels that he is in a much better place now than at this time last year. Manager Paul Molitor agrees that his closer is starting to return to form. “It seems with each outing he’s been a little crisper,” Molitor observed after the game. “His breaking ball was a little better today that’s one pitch that I think has been a little slow for him to come around with.” At least on paper the Twins bullpen appears shaky, From his perspective Glen Perkins feels that he is more than ready to provide the same high-quality pitching he did prior to the second-half of 2014. “I feel a lot better," Perkins says reflected on how he felt this year compared to a year ago. "I always felt like I was a week behind and my arm wasn’t catching up. As far as this spring from last spring, I feel a lot better. I just don’t want to have this forearm thing to crop up. If I can avoid that, I’ll be just fine.” Click here to view the article

Bottle flu?

Ryan on Meyer's change-up: "That's not the issue here. He's OK with the change-up. I'm good with that pitch...I'm a little bit more interested in making sure his fastball is where he wants to go and stuff like that. Change-up's fine. We gotta get him to get fastball command and pitch ahead and not burn pitches and stuff like that."

With today's move has the Twins' pitching staff been finalized? How did Josmil Pinto feel about his second game back from the concussion? Read about these and more at today's Report From The Fort.Twins Option Caleb Thielbar To AAA The Twins announced on Wednesday morning that left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar has been optioned to Rochester. The 28-year-old Randolph, MN native had pitched in 103 games for the Twins over the past two seasons, amassing a 5-3 record, 2.59 ERA and a 74/30 K/BB ratio over 93.2 innings. READ: Which Righty Relievers Can Get Lefties Out? Thielbar’s spring was spotty, as he allowed 19 hits over 11 innings which led to seven earned runs. Was the March performance the reason he was optioned? "There were other people performing," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said before Wednesday's game against the Red Sox. "Some different people that came in. There are other people still here who haven't performed quite as well as he did." A day after optioning left-hander Aaron Thompson to Rochester, the Twins continue to purge southpaws from the bullpen, leaving Brian Duensing and Glen Perkins as the left-handed arms. Yesterday, Ryan said that Thompson’s camp was decent and that he along with pitchers like Thielbar could be back in Minnesota quickly. “He threw OK. He came up last September and did OK. We tried to encourage him to keep his head up, it was a disappointing day for him. It should be. But I can see him surfacing with us. He’s left-handed,” said Ryan. “He’ll be down in AAA just a phone call away with a few others down there.” For now, the Twins have their pitching staff that they will begin the season with but Ryan acknowledged that things do change. "You could always adjust whether it is this week or its in the middle of April or as you go through the spring or summer. Right now, this is the way we are headed." Will The Twins Bring The Heat? When asked if hard-throwers like Jake Reed and Nick Burdi will be ready this year, Ryan left that answer up to the players. "That's up to them," Ryan said of the pair of relievers who combined to strike out 77 in 51.1 innings in 2015. "We got people who are farther ahead than those two guys. Those two guys haven't even had a year of pro ball." Josmil Pinto Happy With Performance On Tuesday, catcher Josmil Pinto played five innings of a minor league game at the Twins’ complex. After his first game back where his swing was described as “late” by Terry Ryan, Pinto had a better time of it, finishing the day 1-for-3 with an impressive home run. When asked if he got all of it, Pinto smiled and said “Oh yes.” The Twins are still concerned over his ability to be ready for opening day in Detroit. “He started out with that hamstring and he was doing fine after that,” Ryan said. “Now’s he’s gotten into those concussion symptoms. So he had to sit nine days for that. So it’s been a little bit of an inconsistent, sketchy look. Not that we don’t know him, we do. So we’ll see how he feels after today and we’ll make a decision after tomorrow.” Pinto will play four of five innings in Wednesday's minor league game but will not catch. Clubhouse Sickness Pitcher Kyle Gibson said he felt significantly better after battling a stomach bug that caused him to miss his last start against Boston. The Twins said he will maintain his current schedule and pitch again on Saturday. While Gibson was recovering, the Twins had to make a quick lineup change before Wednesday’s game. Outfielder Oswaldo Arcia was slated to play against the Red Sox but was replaced with Eduardo Escobar in left field as Arcia was reportedly ill. Escobar has hit safely in 12 of 16 games this spring and launched his fourth home run of the spring off of Yankees’ starter Masahiro Tanaka on Tuesday. There’s no question that Escobar has had a great spring and Ryan knows his offense will have him playing on a consistent basis in the regular season. “We value his contributions here highly and I know Paul [Molitor] is very interested in make sure he gets his due in terms of at-bats.” The swirling sickness in the clubhouse which crippled numerous players and manager Paul Molitor raised questions regarding the cleanliness of the facilities. Ryan was quick to dispel any notion that the sanitation of the clubhouse played any role in the sickness. “We’re very sensitive about locker room cleanliness and issues that would come about in the locker room. And we do that and we’re very protective of that locker room. Unfortunately we have had a lot of guys who have had flu symptoms this spring. I’m not so sure it is out of the ordinary.” Minor League Coach Riccardo Ingram Passes Long-time minor league coach Riccardo Ingram, 48, passed away in Atlanta, Georgia after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. The News-Press’s David Dorsey wrote an article this week detailing how Ingram would be renewing his battle with cancer which first sidelined him from the game for 12 months from July 2009 to 2010. After coaching and managing at various levels in the organization, Ingram spent the last three seasons as a hitting instructor in Triple-A and Double-A. "It'd be very difficult for me to find a person who didn't have good things to say about Ingram," Ryan said of the news. "He's one of those guys who has a lot of charisma. He can tell a story." Ingram leaves behind his wife, Allison, and daughters, Kacey and Kristen. Click here to view the article

I could see him being like a Casey Fien or Jared Burton type pick up. I don't think he's going to strike guys out at Fien/Burton rates but the 7/1 K9/BB9 similar to Fien last year might be reasonable.

After listening to his story about the things he learned in Japan -- throwing strikes namely -- and the difference in his data between before and after that time period, I'm convinced he may have turned a corner in his career.

From what insiders are telling us, the Rays have found some stats that show that in certain sequences (fastball down-change down) makes the pitch damn-near unhittable. Allen is bringing that to this team. It is still a matter of executing but it could be a huge boon to this pitching staff.

It was not long ago that Twins pitcher Blaine Boyer might have been doing things other than throwing a baseball in a major league uniform this time of year. He might have been hunting, fishing or golfing. He might have been traveling more. Whatever it might have been, it would have been with his family. The game’s lifestyle which separated him from his growing family played a role in his decision to take a year off from baseball. Players on the fringe who step away seldom get a second chance but Boyer’s decision to walk away put him on the path that led him to being a better pitcher.Beginning in 2011, Boyer was constantly finding a new employer every few months. FIrst it was several months with the Mets, then the Pirates, followed by the Cardinals (who had him for exactly the month of May in 2009). In August 2011 he was released by St. Louis and decided that he would put his family first over the career which had been one big, long moving day. “I was coming and going and I wasn’t consistently there for my boys and my wife and that brought back a lot of what I went through when I was little, so she understood that,” Boyer told MLB Trade Rumors this spring of his leave of absence. “It wasn’t about me not wanting to play baseball anymore, it was much deeper.” The love of the game pulled him back after the year off. Boyer returned to baseball and signed a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals but sought his release in May to join the Hanshin Tigers of Japan. That experience helped mold him into the pitcher he is today. “They just do little things different,” the 33-year-old Boyer said of the season he played in 2013 in Japan. “It’s funny, like we go out and warm up, they don’t warm up on the [chalk] line. They throw across the field. They do stuff that, to us, it doesn’t make any sense. They got three guys taking batting practice at the same time on the field. They got guys that will go out and swing the bat 700-800 times before a game.” Boyer missed that league’s spring training season and considers himself fortunate for having avoided the infamously rigorous conditioning methods that are better suited for raising an army rather than preparing for a child's game played by grown men. “Their work ethic over there is different too,” Twins general manager Terry Ryan said of the methods used in Japan’s version of loosening up for a game. “They get after it over there. It’s long and tedious. It’s important. Their practice time is a heck of a lot more urgent than ours. When they take BP they go balls out.” Ryan said the game in Japan can sometimes aid a pitcher who was spit out of the majors rediscover his talents or make adjustments. Pitchers who have been baptized in the American version may get too consumed with throwing harder and snapping off bigger breaking pitches. Without the eye-popping velocity, Japan’s pitchers historically have focused more on addition and subtraction. Beyond the physical aspect of the game, Ryan believes that there is a mental side that plays a role for pitchers. Landing in Japan means that MLB’s evaluators no longer have interest - a realization that can land a kick square in the jock. From Boyer’s perspective, the cross-Pacific experience help revive his career. The dimensions of Major League Baseball’s zone has created a wellspring of studies suggesting it is expanding, but in Japan the exact opposite effect is happening. Boyer believes having to pitch to a strike zone in Japan which he described as the size of a tennis ball was a blessing in disguise. “It made me better over here for sure,” Boyer said reflecting on the frustrating lesson imparted by Nippon Baseball League’s miniscule zone. “If there is one thing that made me a better pitcher over there it was that for sure. I was forced to pound that zone and aim small, miss small.” When he returned from Japan his ability to locate his pitches with precision paid dividends. In his time before leaving the country, Boyer issued 94 walks in 234 innings of work (9% walk rate). After signing a minor league deal with the Padres, the parent club summoned him in May 2014 and he walked just eight batters in 40.1 innings (5%). Boyer’s not the only MLB pitcher to spend time in Japan and reduce his walk rate on his return. The Rangers’ Colby Lewis is another success story of someone who went to Japan and came back with improved command. Before leaving, Lewis had a walk rate of 12% but returned and cut that in half. That’s not to say everything Boyer learned came from his time in Japan. While in the Cardinals system, pitching guru Dave Duncan taught Boyer a sinker that he uses frequently. What makes his sinker unusual is that it is the pitch he throws when he wants to bring the heat. “The velocity ticks up when I throw my sinker, which is backwards,” he said following an outing which saw him amp a few pitches up to 95 when facing David Ortiz. “I kinda get through the ball better when I throw my sinker so that tends to tick the velocity up a little bit.” http://i.imgur.com/gGPHZal.gif Boyer flicked his wrist to demonstrate the follow through which he says generates the added velocity. “I have always been able to sit 92 to 94 or 95. I can go up and get 98 on a good day,” Boyer said of his radar readings. "Really it's the sinker. When I went to St. Louis I was just a strictly 92 to 94 guy and Dave Duncan showed me the sinker and I started throwing the sinker and all of sudden I got a huge tick. My velocity just went up. So I say it’s kind of backwards because when I throw my sinker it’s usually harder than my four-seamer.” The Twins have been pleasantly surprised by the speed. Ryan said Boyer showed “a little bit more velocity this spring” than he was expecting - which was around 91 or 92 -- but he is also mixing in his new change-up too. With multiple fastballs -- the sinker, four-seam and a cutter which acts more like a slider ("Adam Wainwright has been trying to tell me the last couple years that it is just a slider") -- Boyer is also embracing the change-up philosophy encouraged by pitching coach Neil Allen. “I haven’t thrown a change-up my entire life,” Boyer confessed. “I maybe have thrown two in a game but they just have been just a fake. I’m not fooling anybody with that. This is a legit change-up. I can’t wait to use that in my arsenal.” http://i.imgur.com/ZmYjDKr.gif With the Padres last year Boyer exuded dominance over right-handed hitters, limiting them to a .178 average in 97 plate appearances, but was cuffed around by left-handers who posted a .305 average against in 63 match-ups. Adding the change-up could help keep those bats at bay. The Twins were obviously pleased with what they saw on the mound and in the clubhouse as well. “He seems like a solid guy,” Ryan levied. “He’s just a good teammate, it looks like. He’s gone about his business professionally and he’s gone out there and when we needed him to take the ball he took it and he’s not had any setbacks. So far, it’s worked out for both of us.” The expanded arsenal combined with the ability to pound the strike zone and surprising velocity should have Boyer contributing out of the bullpen effectively. As the season starts manager Paul Molitor said that he envisions him acting as a bridge between his starters and the back-end of the bullpen in Casey Fien, Brian Duensing and eventually Glen Perkins. There's no telling where Boyer might have been had he not stepped away from the game several years ago. His career has been given a second life since the day he almost walked away and the Twins are hoping to benefit from that. “I’m happy for him,” Molitor said of Boyer’s achievements. “He came over here and he’s been solid from the beginning.” Click here to view the article

Have the Twins pitchers embraced Neil Allen's change-up philosophy? How is catcher Josmil Pinto feeling since his concussion? Which Twins pitcher was cut from the 40-man on Tuesday? Read about these topics and more in the latest Report From The Fort.Pitchers Buying In On Changeup One of the bigger stories of the year has been the hiring of Neil Allen who brings with him the change-up secrets from the Rays organization. Over the last three seasons, no team has thrown more change-ups than Tampa Bay -- almost 1,000 more than the next closest team. Their .604 OPS against on the pitch was the fourth-lowest. Throwing more change-ups was a point of emphasis and Allen has his staff confident that they can succeed with the pitch. “My change-up is my best offspeed pitch so why not throw it to both sides?” left-handed starter Tommy Milone said of the philosophy of more changes. Coming into the spring, Milone had thrown a same-sided change-up 7% of his mix to lefties. And it clearly is his best pitch considering it gained him the highest number of swinging strikes of his repertoire. Expanding the offering to lefties should making him more effective. In his most recent spring start, Ricky Nolasco battled through a tough first inning but was able to limit the Orioles after that because he focused on using his change-up. “I threw a lot of good change-ups which is what I wanted to do.” Relief pitcher Blaine Boyer, who was informed that he made the opening day roster this week, said that he had rarely thrown a change-up in his career but has incorporated a change-up that he has enjoyed this spring. Boyer uses a non-standard change-up grip that is similar to a two-seamer with a slightly wider split and he places his thumb on the side and he said it has been sitting at 84 mph for him in his bullpen sessions. “This is a legit change-up,” Boyer said of the new pitch. “I can’t wait to use it in my arsenal.” READ: Walking Away Gave Blaine Boyer's Career A Second Life Starter Kyle Gibson has had a plus-change-up for most of his baseball career dating back to high school when he first began throwing the pitch because his Dad would not allow him to throw curves. According to PitchF/X data, like Milone, Gibson did not use his change as much against same-sided hitters, throwing a change just 3% of the time to righties. “Coming into spring, that was the one thing Neil and I were talking about a lot and that I really wanted to work on: executing change-ups to righties,” said Gibson. “It’s a pitch that looks really similar to my sinker whenever I have the same release point and I think it is something that will help my sinker against righties.” So far this spring, Gibson has seen a spike in strikeouts which he attributes to being able to throw the change to righties. “I know the one things that has gotten me a few more strikeouts is throwing the change-up to righties,” Gibson said. Allen brings with him the data that the analytic Rays organization uncovered that supports the logic behind increasing the change-up in certain counts and throwing it to same-sided batters. More importantly, he has been able to impart confidence to his pitchers. Josmil Pinto “Feeling Good” After Passing Concussion Test Josmil Pinto was all smiles in the Twins’ clubhouse this morning after returning to action on Monday for the first time since taking three blows to the head from Orioles’ Adam Jones bat on March 21. “He played well,” Ryan said. “I think he was back there for three innings. He did a nice job actually. He handled [Tyler] Duffey, which was good, because he was somewhat familiar with him. It made sense to put him back there when Duffey was pitching. We just got him reacclimated.” Ryan said Pinto did not have any complications but they will continue to have him play in minor league games. “We’ll ease him in on the minor league side and it accomplishes two things: it will get him reacclimated and just in case something happens, we won’t jeopardize days.” Twins Cut LHP Aaron Thompson With the roster deadline nearing, the Twins continued to trim numbers. This morning left-handed pitcher Aaron Thompson was notified that he would be optioned to Rochester. Thompson did well in the spring, working 8.1 innings and allowing only two earned runs with six strikeouts and two walks. The Twins are now down to 29 players in camp. Napoli Destroys Bat, Ball and Duensing In the middle of Monday night’s rough inning at JetBlue Park, Boston Red Sox Mike Napoli was able to drive a Brian Duensing fastball over the faux Green Monster despite his bat breaking in two at the handle. WATCH: Mike Napoli Destroys Bat, Ball And Duensing While NESN commentator Jerry Remy mentioned that the broken-bat home run was a prime example of how strong Napoli is, Alan Nathan, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois and a baseball researcher, shared research on Twitter that the act has less to do with strength or “muscling” the pitch out of the park than two other factors. Napoli’s quick reflexes played a role but his ability to get the barrel to square the ball was more of a factor. The home run sent Duensing into a downward spiral and an inning that just wouldn’t end. After allowing runs in only one previous spring training outing, the Sox on six runs on eight hits. “I told him, I said, that’s obviously not a good night for yourself. You couldn’t make pitches, you got behind but he has had a good spring overall,” said Molitor after the game. “Things snowballed on him. The broken-bat home run was certainly a bad omen of things to come.” Click here to view the article

Prior to Sunday's game in Sarasota, Twins' general manager Terry Ryan said that he and pitcher Mike Pelfrey had a closed door discussion regarding the comments Pelfrey made the day before. Pelfrey was informed that he would not be the team's fifth starter, he was upset by the staff's decision that he would join the bullpen. When he was asked if he would be open to a trade, a frustrated Pelfrey said he would welcome the opportunity to start again.READ: SUNDAY NOTES “It’s one of those situations and I listened and it was a healthy exchange. That’s as much as I can say,” Ryan said of his conversation but wouldn’t address whether or not the topic of a trade came up. Following Sunday's game Pelfrey said he was happy with the outcome of the morning talk. "I let some things off my chest, he let things off his and it was a very good discussion. Obviously my emotions probably got the best of me yesterday and I told him I am going to be a professional and go to the pen and I'm going to give you everything I have. We're going to figure this thing out and it's going to work. Being a good teammate and everything, I told him not to worry. It was a very good talk." Pelfrey refrained from sharing what message Ryan had for the pitcher. "He told me his side, I told him my side,” Pelfrey said. “No hard feelings. I told you going in but I have a lot of respect for [Ryan]. I don't want to be the guy who is upset or you guys can see that or hold grudges. That's not me. Like I said, I said my piece. It's time to move on.” Click here to view the article

How did Ricky Nolasco adjust after a rough first inning against the Orioles? How was Mike Pelfrey's Twins bullpen debut? Who will be the backup to Kurt Suzuki if Josmil Pinto is not ready? Find the answer to these questions and more in the latest Report From The Fort.Ricky Nolasco Rebounds After Rough First Inning The fifth start of Nolasco’s spring did not begin the way he would have liked, allowing back-to-back home runs to Adam Jones and Travis Snider to put the Orioles up 3-0 in the first inning “He tried another curveball on Jones after he had a pretty good swing on the one he fouled back,” Paul Molitor said of Nolasco’s first inning. “I think Ricky misread that foul ball swing as maybe he had him if he threw a better one but he didn’t. He got it. Then Snider, two strikes, he tried to slip a fastball upstairs after throwing some offspeed stuff.” The right-hander settled down to allow just one more run over the next five innings of work. “Those are things you are looking for,” Molitor said. “He came back, I think he got the next nine straight. Three clean innings in a row and gave us a chance to get back in the game. So that was really good. He got through six [innings] under his [pitch] count. I was a nice response to kind of a rough first inning.” “I was just trying to locate and they were definitely hacking so tried to use that to my advantage,” Nolasco said of his outing. “I think they’re ready to get out of here just like we are. Just try not to do too much, when you don’t feel great.” Nolasco said he threw plenty of changeups, which was a part of his game plan for the day but it also helped that the Orioles hitters were gripping and ripping. “Those guys were hacking so I think they did me favor of swinging a ton at everything. So once you figure that out you try to take a little bit off the ball and change your approach and try to get themselves out.” In his final start of the spring, Nolasco said he'll shorten up his pitch count. Mike Pelfrey’s Bullpen Debut Pelfrey also made his bullpen debut on Sunday afternoon in a Twins uniform. Molitor said that either pitching coach Neil Allen or bullpen coach Eddie Guardado will have conversations with Pelfrey and provide suggestions on how to smooth his transition from the rotation to the bullpen. Molitor also reiterated that he would use Pelfrey strictly to start innings until he feels comfortable warming up and entering in the middle of an inning. “I was worried about how it was going to feel but I felt good and got ready quick. And I think this transition is going to be easier than I thought,” he said after his seven-pitch inning. Based on his initial outing from the bullpen, Pelfrey seemed prepared, setting down the Orioles one-two-three in the bottom of the seventh. The big right-hander worked out of the stretch and threw his fastball around 92 mph. Overall, Pelfrey said he was happy with the experience. “It was weird but I got into the game and the phone rang to get ready. You know what was fun is that I had some juices flowing, the heart started pounding and I was thinking ‘man, this is good, this is kind of fun.’” Moving forward, Pelfrey was asked if he would be open to expanding or contracting his arsenal in the shorter outings. He did not think he would but thought twice. “Maybe I’ll get into situations using the curveball. That was always kind of a second-time around [pitch] or to a lefty earlier.” Pelfrey, who said he typically throws 60 pitches to get ready in the pen before a start threw about 10 or 12 pitches before he knew he was loose. The difficult part was the downtime before his time to pitch came but Gaurdado kept the staff entertained. “It’s kind of like comedy hour,” said Pelfrey. Josmil Pinto Close To Return Both the catcher and the Twins were hopeful that the projected backup catcher would be available shortly but after failing his last test, he took a follow-up test on Sunday. The Twins were uncertain as to when the results of that test would be available but Pinto was in good spirits and performed all activities are usual in camp. When asked if he would throw at the Orioles’ Adam Jones -- who had hit Pinto on the helmet three times in one at-bat causing the concussion -- Molitor offered a long pause and then said “No.” If Pinto is not ready before the regular season, the Twins are monitoring the play of catchers Chris Herrmann and Eric Fryer. Molitor mentioned that Herrmann’s defensive abilities needed “tightening up” to improve his receiving and being able to throw out runners. In the first inning, Nolasco buried a pitch that Herrmann took a moment to find before making an offline throw to second in an effort to get the advancing runner. Molitor said that Fryer had the staff’s “confidence” in his defensive skills. As a designated hitter in Sunday’s game, went 1-for-2 with a two-run home run that started the Twins’ scoring. Asked if Herrmann held an advantage over Fryer because he was on the 40-man roster, Ryan said that it would not play a factor in the final decision. Prospect Walker Has Power Potential Twins prospect Adam Brett Walker started in right field for Sunday’s game and found himself sandwiched in the lineup between two of the Twins’ top power sources in Kennys Vargas and Oswaldo Arcia. “I’ve seen Adam enough to know he’s a gifted kid, very athletic,” Molitor said about the 23-year-old outfielder. “Runs well for a big man. He’s got a lot of power. I think he’s learning on how to try to be a little bit of a better hitter.” Molitor mentioned that Walker needed to cut down on the strikeouts, a fact that seemed evident as he led all of the system with 156 whiffs in 2014. He also pounded 25 home runs -- in the home run suppressing environment of the Florida State League, no less -- and led all of the Twins minor leaguers in that category as well. Baseball America recognized Walker as having the farm’s best power. WATCH: Adam Walker Takes A Swing Versus The Orioles Twins general manager Terry Ryan echoed Molitor’s assessment regarding Walker’s power and athleticism but added the rest of his game needed to be refined. “You look at him physically and you expect to see some raw power out of the man. He has that. It’s just the matter of the rest of his game. He’s athletic. He can run. We’ve had him in the outfield and he’s OK. Now it’s just a matter of firming up the bat, taking good at-bats. He’s certainly a threat.” Can the big man stay in the outfield or is he a DH-type waiting in the wings? “He can go get a ball. His range, his ability to cover ground is fine. That bat of his is something we are anxiously awaiting to see how it develops.” Click here to view the article